Deep, Dark Dangers
by Game2002
Summary: Eleven girls from Gensokyo are taken to a mysterious jungle infested with terrifying dangers, the likes of which they have never experienced before. Can they survive the dangers of this jungle and find their way back home?
1. Danger Enters

_If you are reading this notebook, then I wish you a good luck in making your way home…_

With that line, the bearded man in a jungle explorer getup put down his pen and then closed his notebook. As he stood up, a younger explorer behind him said to him, "If you are ready, then let's go."

"Yes, let us go," the bearded explorer said. "We've been here long enough. Today, we will do whatever we can to escape from this world, even if it may cost our lives…"

Both the explorers then left the building they were inside of, leaving behind a few pieces of furniture made of wood, three hammocks, and a compass and a notebook on a table.

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A Game2002 Production

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TOUHOU PROJECT

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_DEEP, DARK DANGERS_

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* * *

**Chapter 1  
Danger Enters**

* * *

A full week had passed by since one of the most devastating incidents to have happened in the Human Village, an invasion of a large amount of demons after being convinced by a notorious criminal from the outside world only known as Human Being, had ended. Things had finally settled down, and demons were once again made sure that they wouldn't attack anyone in the village so easily. The villagers could once again travel around in peace without fear of being attacked by demons, so long as they stay in village grounds.

The Hakurei shrine maiden, Reimu, and a good friend of hers, Marisa, were walking down the street, heading in the direction of a book rental store owned by a good friend of the former. It was a place where books from the outside world were mostly found, and the collection grew every once in a while somehow.

The duo went inside, which was rather quiet, as there were more or less nobody, save for the store owner, Kosuzu Motoori, seated behind a desk at the back of the store. The store owner was way too absorbed by her book to notice the two of them approaching, and when they were near, Reimu called her to grab her attention. When it failed, she called out louder, and that was when Kosuzu heard the sound and thus lifted her head to see who it was. "Reimu! Marisa!" she said in surprise. "Sorry for not noticing you earlier!"

"It's all right," Reimu told her. "Exciting books can really make you lose your mind after all. At least that's what Marisa said…"

"And that's why you should read books more often," Marisa told her. "They can really take you on adventures-ze!"

Kosuzu closed her book after placing a tag in between the pages she stopped at and then took off her glasses. "How may I help you today?" she asked them as put her book onto the desk.

"Nothing, really," Marisa told her. "Wanted to read some good books, but I have the feeling that I'm going to piss off Alice and Patchouli and make them come after my life if I go to them for some, so I decided to come here instead. Reimu is here because she said there's nothing to do around these days, so I suggested that she come here to rent something to read to keep herself entertained."

"Really?" Kosuzu asked as she turned to look at Reimu. "Then you did the right thing by coming here! Reading is a really good way to keep yourself entertained, Reimu! We have lots of great novels in aisle number five that will surely keep you entertained!"

"Thanks for the suggestion," Reimu said. "I'll pick whatever I find interesting myself." Then she went off in a certain direction.

"Don't mind if I do the same thing-ze!" Marisa said before walking off in another direction.

"I hope you all enjoy!" Kosuzu said as she sat down to continue reading her book, but something came to her. "Oh, I just remembered that I was going to unpack the newly arrived box of books." Then she quickly ran to the storeroom.

* * *

Marisa looked into the aisles in between each of the bookshelves, and then she noticed someone way too familiar. "Patchouli!" she said in surprise.

The supposedly immovable librarian of the Scarlet Devil Mansion looked up from the book she was reading and turned to look at the approaching witch. "Oh, it's you," she said to Marisa. Instead of being in her usual pajama-like clothing, she was wearing a light purple dress that was accompanied with a cape. Her hat, a witch's hat instead than her usual one, was hanging down her back using a string that went around her neck. Her hair was also tied into a braid.

"How rare to see you out here in the public!" Marisa said to her. "What's the matter? Suddenly feel like coming out to breathe some fresh air and absorb sunlight-ze?"

"Wanted to read some new books," the magician replied as she continued reading her book. "Since I'm not sure what book I want, I decided to come here to look for one."

"Did you come alone?" Marisa asked her.

"A fairy maid accompanied me," Patchouli replied. "She's currently shopping for grocery."

Marisa leaned against the bookshelf on her left and asked her, "What book do you have in mind?"

"Anything knowledgeable will do," Patchouli replied while flipping through the book. "I prefer educational ones rather than fictional ones."

"As if you don't have enough knowledge already…" Marisa said to her. "You should let yourself go once in a while, you know? By that, I mean enjoying life and not always stick to education and such. I'm not saying education is bad, but it can't be all work and no play, right?"

"Seeking education is a form of entertainment to me, so I'm satisfied with it," Patchouli told her.

"Eh… Suit yourself… Just mind you that people are going to fall asleep sooner or later if you try to entertain them using this method…" Marisa told her.

* * *

When Reimu walked past a certain aisle, she saw Eirin standing in there, flipping through a book about herbs. "It's you, Eirin," the shrine maiden said to her.

Eirin looked at her and said, "Hi there, Hakurei shrine maiden! What brings you here today?"

"Marisa told me to come here to find something to read as a way of keeping myself entertained," Reimu replied.

"That's a nice idea she has there!" Eirin said as she closed the book and put it back into the bookshelf. "Reading is a good way to pass time, so you should read books more."

"Just not sure what sort of book to read," Reimu said. "I'm not sure what sort of genre I'm interested in…"

"Think of what interests you the most and then go look for a book on that subject," Eirin said as she turned her eyes back to her book. "I'm sure you'll find something you like eventually."

"Not a bad idea…" Reimu said. "Though honestly saying, I don't even know if I have a hobby or something I'm particularly interested in… Wait, I think I know…" Then she left with one thing in her mind. "Let's hope there's a book about helping one get more donations!"

She looked at the signs hanging down from the ceiling to see what kind of books were placed within each of the aisles, and then she noticed two people coming in, Yuugi, Ichirin, and Unzan. "Hey there, shrine maiden!" Yuugi, who was carrying a stack of books on her shoulder, said to her while waving.

"I never thought I'd see you in this kind of place…" Reimu said to Yuugi. "Someone who uses brute force to solve pretty much everything in a place full of books?"

"Way to go on stereotyping…" Ichirin said to her.

"Nah, she's actually right… Solving things using brute force is what I do best, and I'm not a sucker for books either…" Yuugi said to her. "The only reason I'm here is to help Satori return books she rented from here. Since I don't really have anything to do currently, and seeing that she has more books than she can carry with her, I decided to help her return them. This amount and weight is nothing to me at all! By the way, where do you put these?"

Reimu pointed at Kosuzu's desk and said, "Just place them there, I think…"

"Okay! Thanks!" Yuugi said as she headed in that direction.

"I'm here to return this book Mistress Hijiri rented and also rent another one she wants for her," Ichirin told Reimu.

"What sort of book does she read?" Reimu asked.

"Stuff about Buddhism and anything can help promote relationship between humans and demons," Ichirin replied. "She's been looking into books about famous outside world people known for acts of peace, like Mohandas Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr."

"Typical of her…" Reimu said. "And who are Mohandas Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr.?"

Yuugi had just placed the stack of books she was carrying onto the desk when Kosuzu came out of the storage room with two cardboard boxes. Seeing that she was having a hard time carrying them, Yuugi went over and offered to help, despite the former saying that she didn't need any. Yuugi took the boxes from her, placed them in front of the desk, and then opened one of them. "So you need to put these books in the correct shelves, right?" Yuugi asked.

"Correct," Kosuzu said.

"I'll help you, then!" the oni said to her.

"It's all right," Kosuzu told her. "I fear that it will be too tough for you to handle…"

"Nah, I'm sure it won't be too hard if you tell me how to do it," Yuugi said. "I just have to look at their titles, find out the categories they belong to, and then put them in the shelves containing the same kinds of books, right?"

"Yes," Kosuzu said with a nod.

"Then that should be easy!" Yuugi said. She picked up the box and then headed for one of the bookshelves while looking at the titles on the books' spines. "Let see… History of the Earth… I think that fits into the nature category…" While the oni was busy, Kosuzu opened the other box and took out some of books to put them in the shelves.

Reimu was in one of the aisles looking for books about donations when suddenly someone called out her name. She turned her head and saw Sunny Milk, Luna Child, and Star Sapphire standing there. "Oh, it's you girls," the shrine maiden said. "What are you doing here? You better not play any pranks here, or I else I won't let you get away with it."

"Don't worry; we know better than to cause trouble in a place like this," Sunny Milk told her. "We're here to rent some books."

"Oh really? Dim-witted fairies like you don't strike me as ones who would read books," Reimu said.

"Actually, Luna Child reads often," Star Sapphire told her. "Just that she can't seem to absorb any knowledge into her head…"

"I did learn a few things…" said Luna Child, sounding a bit offended at what her friend said.

"Once we get our hand on books about pranks, you better get ready for what we're going to whip up in the future!" Sunny Milk told Reimu. "Just wait and see!" Then the three of them ran off, only to get told by Kosuzu that one shouldn't run in this place.

Kosuzu had finished putting away the books she had in her hand, and as she turned to the box to get more, she noticed someone heading into the bookstore. "Oh, it's you, Keine! Welcome!" Kosuzu said to her.

"Nice to meet you, Kosuzu!" Keine said to her.

"What brings you here today?" the storeowner asked her.

"I'm going to teach about the history of Japanese architectures to my class tomorrow, so I'm here to look for books on that subject," the were-hakutaku told her.

"Oh, you can find them in aisle 14," Kosuzu told her while pointing her hand at said aisle's direction. "The last time I checked, they are all up-to-date."

"Thank you!" Keine said. "Must be tough trying to remember all the books you have here, where they are located, and whether or not they are up-to-date, isn't it?"

"It's easy once you've done this long enough, which is the case for me," Kosuzu replied with a smile. Keine went to look for the textbooks, while Kosuzu went back to get more books to place into shelves.

While taking out the books, she picked up one with light brown cover that was peculiar in the way that it lacked words and pictures on the cover, save for a medium-sized piece of light-blue crystalline decoration there, and it was bounded by two button straps. "No title? What's this book about?" she wondered as she put down the other books to open up this one. She flipped through the pages and saw pictures of a jungle landscape and various kinds of fierce-looking animals, most of them being reptiles and arthropods. "Must be a book about wildlife…"

She reached the last page and saw a picture of what appeared to the top of a pyramid built by jungle natives. While she was looking at that picture, all the other girls except Keine came up to the desk and looked at her. "I'll be renting these two books!" Marisa said to her as she placed her two books onto the desk.

"I think I placed all of them in the correct bookshelves," Yuugi told Kosuzu. "Anymore books for me to put away?"

Kosuzu closed the book and looked at the people around her. "Oh, sorry, got too absorbed by this book…" she apologized. "I'll get to work checking out your books right away!" When she closed the book, she gripped the front part of the cover hard enough to make the crystalline decoration get pushed inside. This caused the decoration to let out a bright light that engulfed Kosuzu and all the girls around her.

Keine noticed the light in the aisle she was in, so she stepped out to look at what was going on and also went up to the others, who all had surprised looks on their faces. "What happened?" she asked.

Then there was a bright flash, and all the girls were gone. The book Kosuzu was holding, however, was left behind on the floor. Shortly after this happened, a girl with white hair that was partly blue stuck her head out from within one of the aisles and looked around in confusion. "What was that just now?" she wondered.

* * *

The surrounding was nothing but bright light, so the girls were unable to open their eyes, as it stung them really bad, almost to the point of blinding them. When they sensed the light dying down through their eyelids, they were able to open their eyes again. "Whoa… What was that all about…?" Marisa asked. "It's like the sun was right in front of our eyes, and I don't mean Utsuho's artificial suns…"

Reimu looked around the place and noticed something very, very wrong. "Um… I don't know where this is, but this definitely isn't the inside of a book rental store…" The others looked around and found what Reimu was indeed true. Rather than being inside Kosuzu's book rental store, they were standing in a clearing of a jungle.

"Wha… What…? How did we end up here?" Ichirin asked in confusion. "We were just in the book rental store a moment ago!"

"This is peculiar…" Patchouli commented. "It's as if the light just now was a teleportation magic of sorts that brought us here…"

"How did that happen?" Marisa asked. "Who casted teleportation magic?"

Kosuzu looked at her hands and noticed that the book she was holding was no longer there, and then something came to her. "I think I might know something… This landscape… It looks just like the pictures found in the book I was looking at just now! The book is gone now, though…"

Reimu turned to her and said, "Right, you were reading a book when we came to you to check out books."

"What did you mean when you said this landscape looks just like the pictures found in the book?" Patchouli asked Kosuzu.

"The book I was looking at showed pictures of a jungle that looks just like where we are standing at currently," Kosuzu told her. "There were also pictures of various wild and dangerous-looking animals in the book… I don't know how we got brought here, honestly…"

"Hmmm… So you said the book showed pictures of this jungle and also wild animals?" Patchouli asked.

"Do you know anything about that book?" Marisa asked the magician.

Patchouli shook her head. "Doesn't sound familiar to me… From the sound of it, it would appear that the book Kosuzu was reading contained some kind of magical property that is capable of warping people to the place shown in it. I didn't know there are books capable of doing this…"

"Okay, so that book brought us into this jungle," Reimu said. "There are no jungles in Gensokyo, but I do know they exist in the outside world, so does that mean we're in the outside world?"

"I'm not sure…" Kosuzu said. "Judging from the pictures of the animals, they don't look like ones you would find in the outside world… Some of them do resemble animals of the outside world, but I have seen pictures of actual outside world animals before, and they don't look all that much like the ones I saw in that book."

"Well, the world out there has lots of strange, undiscovered things, so it's possible that those are undiscovered animals," Patchouli said. "Still, I doubt this is the outside world, because if those animals really are undiscovered, there shouldn't be a book talking so much about them. The outside world should have more information on them if that was the case, and I've read a lot about animals too, so I can be sure of this."

"Then where are we?" Keine asked. "If this isn't the outside world…"

"It's possible that we are in another dimension," Patchouli replied.

"What does that mean?" Sunny Milk asked.

"There is a theory that different universes exist alongside one another, but they cannot accessed through traditional methods," Patchouli explained. "They exist in different spaces and plains of reality. Only magic or very advanced form of science is capable of allowing one to access those universes. Things that are myths in our world may actually be real in those worlds, and the vice versa may also be true.

"Dimensions may not always be very different. It may be similar, but with minor changes. It's possible for there to be a universe where we do not exist at all, even Gensokyo. There's even the possibility of an alternate universe where we exist, but our backgrounds and such are in no way the same or similar. For example, there's the possibility that in an alternate universe somewhere, Marisa is a notorious criminal wanted by the whole world."

"Hey, is that supposed to be making fun of me…?" asked Marisa, sounding offended.

"Um… I don't think I get your point…" asked Sunny Milk, confused about Patchouli's explanation.

"To put it simple, we are currently in a world that cannot be accessed through any methods other than magic or advanced science," Patchouli said. "I'm afraid there is no way we can return to our own world unless we find out what exactly it was that brought us here."

"Interesting… I've read about alternate universe theories before too, though not that much," Eirin said after hearing Patchouli's explanation. "So we're now in one of those various universes, one that that has animals not found in the outside world, right?"

"So… any idea on how we can return to our own world?" Yuugi asked Patchouli.

"Kosuzu claims that the book was what brought us here, so perhaps it can help us," Patchouli said. "However, the book is currently not with her, so I'm not sure… Perhaps there is something around here that will give us clues."

Kosuzu tried to recall the things she saw in the book. "Let's see… I do remember coming across pictures of ruins that seem to be built by natives… Perhaps this place has a civilization of sorts…"

"If everything you see in the book can be found here, then I'm sure the ruins you spoke of exist as well," Patchouli said.

"So we just have to find those ruins?" Reimu asked. "Well, what are waiting for? Let's look for those ruins and ask the inhabitants there, if there are any, the way back home."

"Let's hope this place isn't dangerous too…" Marisa said.

Suddenly, a reaction appeared on Star Sapphire's face. Knowing her friend's ability to detect the presence of moving things very well, Sunny Milk asked her, "Did you sense something approaching?"

The fairy in blue nodded and said, "Yes… It's something big, and it's close by as well…" She slowly turned her head to the side and looked into the opening in between the trees. Everyone looked in the same direction and waited for something to happen. Suddenly, the trees were uprooted and pushed aside by what appeared to be a giant snake.

"What in the world?!" Marisa said in shock.

When more of the snake-like creature's body came out, he was revealed to have legs as well. The creature raised his head high in the air and glared at the shocked the girls for a few seconds before lunging in Keine's direction with his mouth wide open to devour her. "Keine! Watch out!" Reimu shouted at her.

Keine quickly tossed herself out of the way before the creature got her, and when the latter turned to look at her, Yuugi gave him a powerful punch to the side of the head that quickly made him pull back his head into the air. Yuugi got into fighting stance and said to the creature, "C'mon! You want a piece of us? You'll have to get through me first!"

The snake-like creature hissed loudly before bringing down his head to devour her, but she leaped up high into the air and then came back down on top of his head, punching it hard to the ground. The oni pummeled the creature from above multiple times before he brought back up his head and shook it to make her fly off.

"Demon Buster!" Reimu shouted as she threw several paper amulets coated in pink auras at the reptilian creature.

"Meteoric Swarm!" Marisa shouted as she used her hakkero to fire several star-shaped projectiles.

The projectiles fired by the shrine maiden and the witch blasted the snake-like creature and forced him to pull back a few steps. He hissed loudly and then brought most of his body into the clearing from the side, plowing down several trees as a result. Using his very long body, the creature had the girls fully surrounded. It was also revealed that the creature had more than just four pair of legs. "Oh no! We're trapped!" Kosuzu gasped.

"Not unless you can fly!" Marisa said.

"But I can't fly!" Kosuzu told her.

The snake-like creature slammed down his head as if it was a hammer to hit the girls, but the ones that were in the way quickly jumped aside to safety. When the creature pulled back up his head, he was punched in the side very hard by Unzan's fist. When the creature turned to look at the nyuudou, the latter punched him across the head multiple times. The snake-like creature eventually retaliated by biting the fist, but as every part of Unzan's body was cloud-like, the nyuudou's hand merely dissipated and then reformed again. The nyuudou brought the same fist into the air and slammed it down onto the snake's head very hard.

SMAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAASH!

The snake-like creature's head was smashed to the ground, and then he passed out. Unzan returned to Ichirin, who praised him for his job well done. "That takes care of that," Reimu said as she looked at the unconscious creature. "What is this anyway? Snakes aren't supposed to have legs…"

"A lizard, perhaps?" Marisa said. "They look like snakes with limbs after all."

"Doubtful," Eirin said. "The body and facial appearance are the same as a snake, and its eyes didn't blink the whole time too, just like snakes. The only answer I can come up with is that it's a snake with legs. A mutation, perhaps? It must have very insane growth hormones to grow this big too…"

"Either that, or it's a creature native to this dimension," Patchouli said. "Do you remember seeing a creature like this in the book, Kosuzu?"

Kosuzu tried to recall what she saw in the book again. "I believe I did this creature in the book, but I didn't pay attention to the details…"

"Then that means everything you see in the book exists here," Patchouli said. "If there are even more dangerous creatures than this, then we surely have to be careful."

"No danger is going to scare me or take us down!" Yuugi said while punching her palm. "A giant monster shows up? I'll give it a good punching!"

"Yeah, there's less to be afraid of with you people here," Sunny Milk said. "However, I just realized that the three of us have abilities that can help us all too! I can manipulate light to make us all invisible, Luna can manipulate sound so that nobody can hear us, and Star can warn us of anything approaching!"

"Guess we're lucky to have the three of you here after all," Marisa said. "Just don't get yourself into trouble, and we should all do fine."

Patchouli looked at the unconscious snake-like creature and said, "I doubt this creature will stay down for long, so let us get out of here now."

"Right, let's find those ruins and hope that we can get out of here from there," Reimu said. "This place is giving me the creeps already…"

* * *

TO BE CONTINUED

This is the second story in my Touhou series, and I hope you will enjoy this one! Unlike the previous story, which looked into philosophical and psychological issues and such, this one completely throws away anything like those and goes for an action-packed and danger-filled theme instead.

Other than the obvious Reimu and Marisa, the other characters are chosen according to how they can help in this story. Patchouli, Kosuzu, and Keine's knowledge is important in guiding everyone back home, Eirin's medical skills is vital in keeping everyone healthy, Yuugi and Unzan are heavy hitters who provide everyone with strength and fighting force (Ichirin has to be there with Unzan, mind you), and the three mischievous fairies are there for reasons explained by Sunny Milk already.

Patchouli's design is inspired by the one found in a doujin made by Morino Hon, Omoito Zwei. While the comic itself is work-safe, please still be aware of running across of NSFW stuff if you plan to look for it. It really depends on what site it is, though. Also, Ichirin is wearing her Hopeless Masquerade outfit.

Yes, that girl who remained in the book rental store is Tokiko, in case you haven't figured out yet. One last thing, this story was originally called Dangers of the Dark and Deep. I changed it because I thought it sounds better shorter.


	2. Lethal Beasts

**Chapter 2  
Lethal Beasts**

* * *

After defeating the giant creature that appeared to be a snake with multiple limbs, the girls looked up at the air and noticed something strange about it. "The sky's a tad bit purple, don't you think so?" Marisa asked.

"Judging from the swirling motion, I think it may some sort of gas," Eirin said. "Purple gas tends to mean poison… I'm not sure if it's safe to be flying up there if what I think is true… The fact that there are no living creatures flying in the air may be proof of it…"

"It's not like we don't have a doctor here to keep us healthy," Reimu said while looking at the swirling purple gas in the sky. Suddenly, a creature that flew too fast for them to identify zoomed across the air. "Whoa! What was that?!"

"I think it was a bird," Patchouli replied.

"But if the air really is poisonous like Eirin said, then there shouldn't be anything flying up there," Marisa said. "Guess it isn't poisonous after all."

"Don't be so sure of this yet," Eirin said. "For all we know, the creatures here may all be immune to poison, so they have no problem flying up there. I can test and see if the air really is poisonous. Good thing I brought my basket of medical equipments along!"

She put the basket she was carrying onto the ground and opened it to get something. "What are you taking out?" Reimu asked her.

"Something I use for determining the level of a poison," Eirin explained as she took out a small, rectangular device with a LCD screen. Taking out an arrow from the quiver on her back, she tied the device onto the stick of the arrow using a paper tape, and then she used her bow to shoot the arrow straight up into the air.

Everyone watched as the arrow flew high up into the air until it was only a tiny speck, and then it fell back down. They all backed away in order to avoid getting hit by it. When the arrow hit the ground, Eirin picked it up and looked at the LCD screen on the device. "A hundred and fifty…" she said. "Not exactly that dangerous, but it's still strong enough to make you feel sick. An antidote is required if you want to get healed from it."

"How can you tell how dangerous the poison is from the number?" Keine asked her.

"Zero is the base number, and anything above it is considered poisonous," Eirin replied. "Any number below one hundred is considered relatively harmless and does not require antidotes to heal, as your body can naturally get rid of it in most cases. Anything over that is considered harmful. The fact that the number here is over a hundred means that this poison is something we shouldn't underestimate. It may not be very high, but we still shouldn't consider flying anywhere near the gas."

"So flying is out of question…" Reimu said. "Well, guess we'll have to travel on foot…"

"And I was hoping that we can fly through the air to avoid danger…" Marisa said.

"We did see a flying creature just now, so I don't think it will be that safe up in the air either," Ichirin said.

"We do not know which way we should go from here," Patchouli said, "so I think we should go a bit into the air to see if we can find anything. It should be fine as long as we don't fly too high, I think…"

"I think it should be fine, and I can treat you if you get poisoned," Eirin said. "Just hope my antidotes can handle this kind of poison… By the way, where is the poison here coming from anyway?"

"So…? Who's going to go up there and look around?" Reimu asked, ignoring her question. She looked around and saw no one raising their hands. "Um… Nobody…? What? Afraid of getting poisoned?"

"Well, you know the risks…" Marisa said.

"Geez… Does nobody want to go home…?" Reimu said in frustration, and then she turned to Ichirin. "Ichirin, you go up there."

"Who me?" the demon asked.

"Yes. Don't fly too high, and you'll be fine," Reimu told her.

Ichirin looked at the poisonous air in the sky for a few seconds and then said, "Okay… There shouldn't be any harm in this, I think…" So she and Unzan slowly floated into the air. They came to a stop when they were past the trees, as they fear they would be too close to the poison if they went any higher. They looked in every direction for anything noteworthy, and when Unzan tapped her shoulder to get her to look in the direction he was looking at, as he found something of interest. "You mean that architecture over there? That looks like somewhere we can go to. Perhaps the ruins are…"

Before she could finish her phrase, something zoomed past Unzan, surprising him. When the thing was gone, he could not see Ichirin. He heard his master's scream coming from afar, so he looked in the direction it came from and saw a bird-like creature flying into the distance, and Ichirin could be seen caught in its talons. "LET GO OF ME! HEEEEEEEEEEEEEELP!" she screamed.

"ICHIRIN!" Unzan shouted really loud, so loud that the girls at the bottom jumped up at the sound of it. It was like hearing a thunder. The nyuudou then went after the creature at a fast speed.

"Did something happen to Ichirin?!" Marisa asked.

"Let's go after Unzan fast!" Reimu suggested, and then everyone quickly flew into the air.

"Wait! You forgot about me!" Kosuzu shouted at them.

* * *

The creature that took Ichirin away was basically a pterodactyl with a pair of protrusions at the back of its head and a spear-tipped tail. Ichirin tried to free herself by prying open its talons. "Let go of me! I order you at once!" she shouted. "Do you hear me?!" The creature flew higher and higher until it was within the poison gas, so Ichirin quickly put her hands over her mouth and nose and held her breath.

"Let go of Ichirin at once!" Unzan shouted as he dauntlessly flew into the poison gas. He pulled back his fist and then fired it at the winged creature. Sensing approaching danger, it quickly steered to the side in the nick of time. The pterodactyl turned around and screeched loudly at the approaching nyuudou in a threatening manner. When Unzan was close to it, he tried to punch the creature out of the air, but it managed to avoid his fists with swift movements.

The pterodactyl quickly went behind Unzan and stabbed him through the back using its beak, but it only caused the nyuudo to dissipate into smaller cloud particles that quickly reformed. The creature was surprised at such a sight, and this gave Unzan the opportunity to punch it across the head with a powerful right swing.

POW!

The creature screeched as it went circling through the air from the punch, taking Ichirin along, until it disappeared into the trees below, uprooting a few in the process. The girls looked in the direction the creature flew into, and then they quickly went there with Unzan. Kosuzu was sitting with Marisa on the latter's broom.

The group descended in the miniature clearing created by the creature, which was now unconscious, and approached it. Ichirin was able to free herself from its talons, as the grip had loosened. Keine helped her up by the arm and asked her, "Are you all right?"

Ichirin coughed a couple of times before replying, "I breathed in a bit of the poison gas when this monster flew into it… I feel… dizzy…"

"Then I better treat you now," Eirin said, and then she looked at Unzan. "You flew into the poison gas too, so I think I should also check you, even though I think a cloud-like being like you should be fine."

"We better do it in a place without this guy around," Reimu said. "Who knows when it'll get back up again?"

* * *

After a few minutes of walking, the group arrived at a river. They settled down at the side of it to take a rest, and there, Eirin started treating Ichirin and Unzan.

Yuugi walked up to the river and looked at it. "Okay, who's up for some fish? It's very shallow here, and I can see several fish swimming around."

Sunny Milk and Luna Child went up to her and looked at the fish swimming in the water. "So whatchoo gonna do? Catch them with your bare hands?" the former asked.

"You want me to do that? I'll show ya, then!" Yuugi said before taking off her shoes to step into the water.

Seeing that the oni was in the water trying to catch fish, Marisa said, "Let's set up campfire! Time to get ready to eat!" Then she turned to Patchouli. "Patchouli! Make some fire!"

"Sure," the magician replied with a nod. "Firewood first, then."

"That's easy! Just snap off some branches from the nearby trees!" said Marisa. "Let me show you how!" She went up to one of the trees and looked all around it. "Um… There doesn't seem to be any branches on this tree…"

Kosuzu turned to her and said, "The kinds of trees found in jungles typically don't have branches growing out from their sides. They're mainly at the top, and even so, they're usually very thick."

"Then how are we going to get firewood like this?!" Marisa asked.

Patchouli sighed and then said, "Move aside." Marisa did as she said, and then the magician moved her finger around in the air in a specific motion before spreading her arms out to the sides. "Metal Wood Sign: Elemental Harvester!" In an instant, buzzsaws appeared out a flash of lights around her and then flew at the tree Marisa was looking at, slicing it into several segments.

Marisa picked up one of the segments and said, "Nice going! Your magic is totally going to be of big help while we're here-ze!"

"Yeow! Yeow! Yeow! Get off me!" shouted Yuugi. Everyone turned to look at the oni to see her trying to shake piranhas off her limbs. After some shakings and some pulling, she managed to get all of them off and threw some onto the ground. "Man! These fish are fierce! You ever heard of a fish biting back at the fisherman?!"

"At least you managed to catch them in the end," Sunny Milk said while watching one of the piranhas flop on the ground.

Luna Child used a small stick she found to poke the piranha, and when she put it close to its mouth, it bit off the front end of it with a single snap of its jaw. "Whoa!"

* * *

Eventually, they managed to catch enough fish by firing projectiles into the water to knock them out. Keine helped clean and prepare the fish, and Patchouli used her magic to set fire to the some of the firewood. The piranhas were grilled over the fire after being impaled with sticks. They were soon ready to be eaten.

"Tastes pretty good!" Marisa said after having her bite.

"Apparently, there are piranha-related dishes in the outside world," Kosuzu said while eating hers. "This is my first time eating one! Maybe this is also what they taste like there."

Ichirin, who was lying on a makeshift bed sheet made using leaves, got up and shook and rubbed her head. Turning to see the others eating, she got up and went over to sit down next to Eirin, who handed one of the grilled piranhas to her. "How are you feeling?" the doctor asked her.

"Better now," the demon replied as she took the fish from her. "Thanks a lot!"

"Luckily, it's not very strong poison, and my antidotes can take care of it as well," Eirin told her. "I checked up on Unzan, and while he isn't showing any signs of illness, I did discover traces of poison mixed within his body, so I removed them."

While Ichirin was eating, Reimu asked her, "So… did you see anything up there before you got captured by that massive bird?"

"Unzan and I saw some sort of architecture in the distance," Ichirin replied after swallowing. "It's in that direction."

Everyone looked in the direction she was pointing at, and Patchouli said, "Looks like the river is flowing in that direction, too. If we follow the river, we should be able to reach it."

"Great! The path is just right before our eyes! Let's hope that architecture you came across is related to the ruins we are looking for-ze!" Marisa said.

Keine lowered her meal and said, "Then let's head there as soon as we're finished. Seeing that this place is not safe to spend for the night, we should get out of here as soon as we can. We can fly above the river to avoid getting lost."

Patchouli nodded. "Keine is right. Due to the poison, we should avoid flying too high. Flying above the river a few meters is good enough."

"Then let's finish up these fish fast and then go on our way," Reimu said as she finished up her meal.

* * *

After the girls were done with their meal, they wasted no time in setting off for the architecture Unzan and Ichirin claimed to have seen. Following Keine and Patchouli's advices, they flew in the direction the river was flowing a few meters above it.

Luna Child looked down at the water and said, "The water sure is murky… I'm starting to think if the fish we ate were all right…"

"Keine cleaned them thoroughly, so I think it should be all right," Sunny Milk said. "I'm more worried about what sort of nasty fishes could be living down there. If those small fish we ate can bite really hard, then I'm scared to imagine what the larger ones can do…"

Suddenly, a dart-like projectile shot out of the river and struck Sunny Milk in the body. The force of the projectile knocked fairy out of the air and into the water. "SUNNY!" Star Sapphire gasped. She also caught the sight of a fish submerging into the water the moment the fairy in red fell in.

Sunny Milk emerged from the water, but before she could cry out or anything, she was instantly pulled back down. "Sunny! We have to help her!" Luna Child gasped.

"Leave it to me!" Yuugi said, and then she dived into the water to go after Sunny Milk.

"This is bad…" Marisa said. "I hope those two are all right…"

Underwater, Yuugi could see a brown-skinned fish with black stripes pulling a frightened and struggling Sunny Milk into the depths. Swimming as she could, Yuugi caught up with Sunny Milk, grabbed her hand, and then pulled her hard to instantly fling her out of the water. The fish was pulled into the air as well. Immediately after doing this, Yuugi felt a large amount of pain when she felt something biting her arm.

"Sunny!" Star Sapphire shouted as she watched her friend flying into the air with a fish biting her left foot.

Eirin loaded an arrow onto her bow and, with careful aiming, fired at the fish to make it let open its mouth in pain. With an arrow going through its body, the fish fell back into the water and sank. Luna Child and Star Sapphire quickly flew over to the frightened Sunny Milk to comfort her. "It's all right now, Sunny," Star Sapphire said to her. "It's all right now."

"I… I thought… I was done for…" the frightened fairy said while breathing heavily.

Kosuzu sighed with relief, knowing that Sunny Milk was all right. "Thanks goodness… Having an oni with us is a good thing after all…"

"You did a great job, Yuugi!" Marisa said as she turned to the river, but she didn't see Yuugi at all. "Hey, where'd she go?"

Suddenly, a large creature flew out of the water, making drops of water fly all over the place. "What the?!" Reimu said in shock. The creature fell back into the water, and then Yuugi emerged from the water and grasped for air.

"Yuugi, what happened?! Was that a… giant crocodile you punched out of the water just now?!" Marisa asked her.

Yuugi looked at the upside-down and seemingly unconscious crocodile. "Yeah, this thing attacked me right after I flung that fairy out of the water. It's got a pretty strong grip with its jaw! Almost felt as if my arm was gonna get torn off! I managed to pry open its mouth before it tore off my arm, though."

Patchouli and Keine floated above the crocodile and inspected it. "Incredible… Newspapers that occasionally make their way into Gensokyo have reported crocodiles that are larger than usual, but I think this one is easily larger than all the ones I've read about…" Keine said.

"The creatures of this world can be said to be amazing…" Patchouli said. "I think we can testify for ourselves that pretty much all of them are dangerous."

In order to tend to the injured ones, the group quickly landed on dry ground. Patchouli then set up fire for Sunny Milk and Yuugi to dry themselves, and at the same time, Eirin tended to the two's wounds.

While wrapping a bandage around Yuugi's arm, she said to her, "Assuming that the crocodile shut its mouth very hard, you should've lost your arm already. Good thing that oni's skin and skeletons are naturally tougher than humans and even most demons."

"Yeah, good thing for that!" Yuugi said. "That crocodile wouldn't find me tasty because of this! Haha!"

Luna Child and Star Sapphire sat down on both sides of Sunny Milk and looked at her bandaged foot. "Are you all right?" Luna Child asked her.

"It doesn't hurt as much anymore," Sunny Milk replied. "Eirin told me not to move around too often if I want to let it heal faster, but I assume she only meant walking, so I can fly instead!"

Reimu was looking at the river, and she saw the same kind of fish that shot Sunny Milk into the river shooting down a large and fierce-looking dragonfly into the water, where it was quickly dragged underneath by the former. "Man… The fishes living in this river sure are something…" she commented. "Guess it's not safe flying above the river, unless…" She then turned to Sunny Milk. "Guess it's time that you put your ability to use, Sunny."

"Make us all invisible, right?" Sunny Milk asked. "No problem! Here I go!" She floated slightly into the air and raised her arms high up, causing a ball of light to be formed over her palms. The bright light made the others close their eyes for a few seconds, and then it disappeared.

Ichirin looked at herself to see if there were any changes, but didn't see any. She looked at Unzan and the others and saw that they were still visible. "Um… How am I still seeing all of you…?" she asked.

"Oh, so you expected to not be able to see yourself or the people around you, right?" Sunny Milk told her while waving her finger. "My ability to manipulate light is more advanced than you think! I can alter the way light bounces off us so that we are only invisible to the eyes of certain people! As you can see for yourself, we can still see each other, but all those monsters around us can't! Awesome, isn't it?"

"Cool!" Yuugi said while looking at herself.

Suddenly, they heard the sound of buzzing in the air, and when they looked up, they saw several dragonflies, the same kind Reimu saw getting eaten by the fish, flying over them. One of the dragonflies looked down for a few seconds and then stopped to hover in midair. "Um… Did it see us…?" Marisa asked.

Sunny Milk put her finger over her mouth to signal for her to be quiet, and then she gave an okay sign while winking to assure her that everything would be all right. The girls stood as still as possible as the dragonfly flew close to the ground and looked around like it was searching for something. "It can't see us, right…? Of course, it can't!" Sunny Milk said in her head. "My invisibility is perfect! It can't see any of us for sure!"

The dragonfly looked around for a few more seconds, and then it hovered higher up into the air and started flapping its wings faster and harder than before. In doing so, the buzzing sound that its wings were giving off softened until it was no longer audible.

A surprised look appeared on Luna Child's face, and her two friends were wondering why she was like that. The dragonfly then scanned the place again before setting its eyes in Kosuzu's direction, making the girl scared. The insect stared at her for a few seconds before screeching loudly and then zooming in her direction. Kosuzu screamed at the sight of this, but the insect was quickly shot in the side by an arrow and pushed away.

Fallen onto the ground and trembling violently, Kosuzu turned to Eirin and said, "Thank… Thank… you…"

"That was close…" Eirin said as she lowered her bow.

Seeing this as the opportunity, Luna Child placed her hands next to her mouth and opened it, releasing a series of sound waves that was visible to everyone. After that, she said something, but nobody could hear her at all. "Oops… Sorry about that…" she said, and then she did the same thing again. "Can you hear me now?"

"Yes, loud and clear," Sunny Milk said to her.

"Why make the sound disappear just now?" Star Sapphire asked her.

"Because that insect was using supersonic to locate us," Luna Child explained. "It flapped its wings at such a high frequency that we cannot hear it, but I guess it's because of my ability to manipulate sound that I can hear such a sound…"

"I see…" Patchouli said. "So that insect indeed couldn't see us, but the sound wave created by the buzzing of its wings bounced off us and back to it, notifying it of something down here. In order to pinpoint our exact locations better, it increased the frequency to the point where it cannot be heard under normal conditions. This is similar to how bats hunt preys."

"Just now, I manipulated the sound so that only we can hear what we are saying among ourselves," Luna Child explained. "I also made it so that they cannot hear their own sound waves when they bounce off us."

"Such much for invisibility being a good method for stealth…" Marisa said. "At least with the absence of sound, nobody should be able to see us now."

After being sure that they wouldn't be spotted by anything this time, the girls once again took off into the air, following the flow of the river. While on the move, Star Sapphire sensed the presence of something following them. She looked to the side and saw something humanoid moving among the trees, but because of the leaves, she wasn't able to tell exactly it was. Thinking that there was no way they could be spotted, she decided to ignore it.

They continued on their way when all of a sudden, something shot out of the tree at a fast speed, heading for Eirin. The Lunarian doctor barely had time to react, and the thing rammed into her and pushed her in among the trees at the side. "Eirin!" Keine gasped.

Eirin hit the ground violently with a thud, and staring into her face was a humanoid creature with a reptilian face that had a pair of red, intimidating eyes. Screeching loudly, the creature raised its claws and then brought it down on her head, but she quickly tilted it to the side. Eirin rolled to the side and managed to toss the reptilian creature away before standing back up and readying her bow and arrow.

The reptilian creature let out another screech before leaping at her, and she quickly let go of the bowstring to let the arrow go through its chest. The creature was pushed back through the air until it was pinned to the tree, and while it was trying to free itself, the doctor quickly ran in the direction of the river, where she encountered the others. "Eirin! Are you all right?" Reimu asked her.

"I'm all right," she replied.

Hearing the painful screeching of the creature, Marisa asked, "What attacked you just now?"

Eirin looked in the direction of the creature and replied, "A humanoid lizard, I think…"

"Humanoid lizard? We have those kinds of demons back in Gensokyo, too," Reimu said.

"But how was it able to see us? I thought we're supposed to be invisible!" Kosuzu said.

Everyone turned to Sunny Milk, who nervously replied, "But you can't become visible again unless I deactivate the effect! There's absolutely no way it should be able to see us!"

"Are you sure?" asked a skeptical Reimu. "Perhaps you unintentionally and unknowingly deactivated it, or your ability actually has a time limit."

"Hey! I know my own abilities very well! There's no way any of what you said can happen!" Sunny Milk angrily said. "If you don't believe me, then I'll make it so that you cannot see yourself to see if the monster that attacked Eirin can still see us!" Then she raised her hands into the air to create a ball of light to do as she said.

After the ball of light disappeared, they all looked at themselves, and just like Sunny Milk said, they were no longer able to see their own body. "This is creepy…" Marisa commented. "I feel like I'm a ghost… and also all alone out here…"

The creature managed to pull the arrow off its body. Ignoring the pain, the creature looked around in anger for the person who wounded it. When it came to where the girls were and looked in their direction, it screeched loudly and angrily before running in their direction, much to their surprise. The creature leaped at Keine, but Yuugi punched it into a tree from the side.

CRASH!

Keine sighed with relief and then said, "Thanks, whoever you are…"

"Figured that by the way it jumped, it was going to pounce onto someone, so I attacked it," Yuugi said. "Good thing my hunch is right…"

Sunny Milk couldn't believe what she saw just now. "This… This shouldn't be possible! Everyone is completely invisible!" she claimed. "Nobody should be able to see us! How on earth did that lizard demon see us?! I don't understand!"

"It's likely that those lizard demons relied on their sense of smell to locate us," Patchouli said. "However, even using that, it still shouldn't be able to pinpoint our location right away. The way the lizard ran at Keine was as if it was able to see clearly that she was standing there…"

"Right…" Keine said with a nod.

"Whatever method that lizard demon used to see us, it's clear that even if we are invisible and cannot be heard by anyone, we are NOT safe from all the creatures living here," Reimu said. "I'm really hating this place already…"

"So… How about changing us back to normal?" Marisa asked. "I mean change us back to the way where only we can see each other. Hearing disembodied voices all around me is plain too freaky for me to handle…"

Sunny Milk did the same thing to make everything the way Marisa said again. Shortly after she did, Star Sapphire warned everyone that they were surrounded. Everyone looked around in awareness, and suddenly, several humanoid lizards appeared from behind and top of trees, glaring at them. "Let's hope they're not good at fighting…" Marisa said.

"You want a fight?" Yuugi said to those humanoid lizards while punching her palm. "Bring it on, then! I'll show you that you've messed with the wrong person!"

The humanoid lizards growled and were about to make their moves when their reactions suddenly changed. The sound of leaves rustling was heard as they looked all over the place in panic. "Did you hear that?" Ichirin asked.

"I heard it…" said Reimu, looking around. "What is that…?"

The humanoid lizards scurried away in panic, which made the girls confused. "Something else is approaching…" Star Sapphire said in a worried voice. "This time… There's a lot… Tons… Tons of them…"

The sound of the leaves rustling became louder and louder, and it became more and more evident that it was heading their direction. "We better get into the air right now…" suggested Patchouli, looking worried. The others agreed, so they quickly floated a few feet into the air and looked down. Moments later, they spotted what appeared to be a mass of living creatures approaching, heading in the direction of the river. When they got closer, the girls and Unzan were able to get a good look at what they were. "Ants…?" Marisa curiously said.

Indeed, a large amount of black ants, the size of an adult's index finger, were marching very close to each other in a straight line. From the air, it looked like there was a river of black water traveling underneath them. "They must be army ants!" Kosuzu said. "In the outside world, there is a kind of ant that travels together in large numbers across terrains, devouring anything that gets in their way."

"Are they this big as well?" Reimu asked. "Their size is ridiculous for ants!"

"I'm sure no… These are definitely bigger…" Kosuzu said.

They watched as the army ants marched all the way into the river, and instead of drowning like they were expecting, the ants swam across it. A fish close to the water surface happened to be swimming in their path, and the ants in lead quickly crawled all over the fish, which thrashed around to get them off, and then it sank into the water. The rest of the ants continued swimming forward. Shortly afterwards, a fish bone floated to the surface, next to the ants. The ants that devoured it also surfaced and then joined the rest in swimming to the other side.

"Whoa… Did you see that…?" Sunny Milk said in shock. "That fish got stripped to its bone in just a few seconds…"

"I'm more surprised at the fact that those ants can swim…" Star Sapphire said. "I thought all ants are supposed to drown when in water…"

"All I can say is that we shouldn't expect the animals of this place to behave like the ones back in our world…" Keine said.

* * *

The army ants continued marching across the forest, devouring and climbing over anything that got in their way, unless the latter was a tree, in which case they would move around it. Any creature in their way quickly retreated when they heard the sound of leaves rustling. Nobody wanted to be in the path of an army of highly dangerous ants.

The earth suddenly shook. At first, the ants weren't fazed and continued moving forward, but when the shaking happened continuously and grew louder each time, the ants suddenly scattered all over the place in panic. The creatures that evaded the ants ran for their lives as well when the shaking became stronger and louder. Whatever it was, it scared them even more than the ants.

A pair of pterodactyls was up in the air, looking around in panic when they heard the roaring. One of them quickly flew away as fast as it could, but the other one remained to continue looking around. Such a decision proved to be a big mistake for it, as shortly after its mate left, something really big came jumping out from the trees and in the its direction. The last thing it saw before darkness overtook it was a massive mouth, as big as its body, lined with sharp teeth.

* * *

TO BE CONTINUED


	3. Ultimate Tyrant

In case people haven't noticed this yet, this story is based off episode 47 of the 2003 Ninja Turtle series, April's Artifact. That episode is about the turtles and April getting sent to a dangerous jungle in another dimension by a strange artifact and must find a way to return to their own dimension.

**Chapter 3  
Ultimate Tyrant**

* * *

After several minutes of following the flow of the river, the group finally saw the river curving all the way to the right and no longer heading in the direction of the pyramid-like architecture in the distant. "Well, this is as far as the river can take us," Reimu said, and then she looked at the path with trees on both sides leading towards the temple. "Guess we'll have to follow that dirt path instead."

The others agreed, and so they landed on the dirt path and headed down it. Keine inspected the path and said, "This path looks like it is manmade."

"That would mean there is or was civilization here," Patchouli said. "I'm sure we'll come across a village or something if we follow this path."

It didn't take them more than a minute to come to a village. Some of the buildings seen were made of wood, but some were made of stone. All of them were very old and torn down, however. Bones could be seen lying around, too.

The girls walked into the village and looked around the place, and Kosuzu said, "I think this is the ruins I saw in the book… Guess it's actually a village…"

"This place looks abandoned…" Keine said. "I wonder what happened here…"

"Those bones…" pointed out Star Sapphire. "This place gives me the creeps…"

"Let's hope there are people here, even if only a few," Reimu said. "Let's also hope there's no language barrier between us…"

The group made their way to an empty square in the center of the village, and then Reimu suggested that they spread out to look for anything noteworthy for a while before gathering together at the same place. This sounded like a good idea to the others, so everyone went off in at least pairs, as they considered it too dangerous to travel alone.

* * *

Patchouli and Eirin spotted a peculiar building that seemed to be made out of a combination of bones, wood, and stone. Curious, they went inside and saw a cauldron in the middle of the room, and all around it were vases and jars, not to mention skeletons and dried up bodies of small animals. "This place…" Patchouli said, "It looks like a witch doctor's hut."

Eirin nodded. "The cauldron and all the other things here sure do tell." She looked into some of the jars and vases and noticed that some of them had liquids inside. Curious about what they were, she took out the poison-detecting device and held it with a pair of forceps to insert it into one of the vases.

Patchouli saw a book placed on a table in front of the cauldron, so she looked at the contents on it.

* * *

"Hello? Anyone home?" Marisa called out as she went into a house made of a wood. She looked around, but there was nothing besides pieces of furniture and small insects crawling around.

Reimu and Kosuzu came into the house as well and looked around. "Nobody's been in here for a long time, it seems… It's almost as much of a mess as your house…" Reimu said.

"Hey! Mine isn't that bad!" said Marisa, offended.

* * *

Eventually, everyone gathered together at the square to talk about their discoveries. "So… anything interesting?" Reimu asked. "We didn't find any…"

"There's not a single soul," Ichirin said while shaking her head slightly.

"Didn't find anything startling or special either," Keine said. "By the way, the architecture style here reminds me of South American natives, like the Incas and Aztecs."

"I found this in what appears to be a witch doctor's house," Patchouli said as she showed everyone the book she found. "Unfortunately, I don't understand the language used in it, but perhaps I can find out something by looking at the pictures."

"I also made an interesting discovery," said Eirin, holding up a vase. "I checked the liquid inside this vase and found out that it has the exact same level of poison as the one in the air."

"Really?" Marisa curiously asked before looking at the poison in the air.

"This leads to the question of whether or not they are related," Eirin said. "Definitely an interesting discovery… I doubt this is a coincidence."

"Is it possible that the civilization here wiped themselves out with this poison?" Reimu asked.

"Why would they make the poison in the first place if it would wipe them out?" Sunny Milk asked.

Eirin shrugged. "Who knows? Perhaps they were trying to create a cure that ended up backfiring? Or they wanted to create a biological weapon to fight against their enemies or the creatures here? If the latter is true, then it seems to be ineffective, as the giant bird-like creature that captured Ichirin was clearly flying around unharmed within the gas."

"I'm thinking…" Yuugi said. "The skeletons and the torn buildings imply that a battle or something similar had happened here. If the people here simply died from poison, then I doubt the buildings would be in such a wrecked state."

"You're right," Keine said with a nod. "A violent confrontation definitely must've happened here in order for this village to be in such a torn state. Broken spears on the ground are proof of this."

Reimu said, "Anyway, it looks like there is nobody alive here for us to get in contact with, right? So much for coming all the way here to look for the way back home…"

"I wouldn't give up so soon if I were you," said Eirin, looking at the pyramid in the distant, outside of the village. "That's one place we can check."

Kosuzu looked at the top of the pyramid, and then she started recalling something she saw in the book. "Wait a minute… I think I may have a clue…" she said.

Patchouli turned to her and asked, "What is it?"

"The page I was looking at before I closed the book… The last page of the book…" the storeowner said. "It looked like the top of a pyramid…" She pointed to the top of the pyramid. "The top of the pyramid appeared to be flat, and there's an altar with a large piece of crystal on top of it. That crystal also looks like the one on the cover of the book."

"What does that have to do with us going back home?" asked Luna Child.

"If my hunch is correct, then the way back home may be related to the top of the pyramid and that piece of crystal," Kosuzu said.

"So you're saying that the exit to this world is located at what you saw in the last page of the book?" Reimu asked her.

The storeowner nodded. "That's what I believe, but I can't be sure of it."

"Well, at least we know where we should be going next," Marisa said, and then she looked at the top of the pyramid. "Getting to the top shouldn't be a problem at all, so let's fly there at once!"

"Don't forget about the poison," Eirin reminded her while looking at the purplish gas in the sky. "From the look of it, the top of the pyramid is within the poison, so we'll likely die from poisoning before we get there."

"Then what other suggestions do you have?" Sunny Milk asked her.

"Well, we can try getting to the top by going into the temple," Eirin suggested. "I'm sure there is a way to the top from the inside."

"But we're still going to run into the poison when we step outside, so what's the point?" Reimu asked.

Eirin held up the vase and looked at it. "Maybe I can find a solution to things if I analyze this poison…"

Ichirin looked at the sky and said, "I think the sun's starting to set."

Everyone looked at the sky, and Marisa said, "You're right, though if it really is evening since we came here, then it sure is a long evening… For as long as I can remember, the sky has been looking rather yellow since we came here… It seems to be more of orange this time, though."

"Guess we should find some place to turn in for the night, then?" Yuugi asked. "I know you lot want to get back to our own world as soon as possible, but traveling at night may be dangerous, so I suggest that we wait until tomorrow and plan things out first before heading on our way. Plus, Eirin wants to find out more about the poison, and that will surely be a big help to us."

"As much as I think it is too dangerous to be staying here for a day, Yuugi has a point," Keine said with a nod. "We should give Eirin some time to analyze the poison and also plan our next move. Rushing will only get us into trouble. As long as we find a good place to stay at, I'm sure we can go through the night safely. Sunny Milk's power will also keep us safe."

"Um… I have a confession…" Sunny Milk said. "The truth is… my powers won't stay activated forever during the night…"

"What…?" Ichirin asked.

"I get more power when there is sun, so it is only during the daytime when I can make my power of invisibility last forever," Sunny Milk explained. "As I am not at full power during the night, the invisibility will only last a few minutes."

"I'm the opposite, however," Luna Child said. "I get my power from the moon, so my power to prevent there from being sound will last an entire night, but only for a few minutes during the day."

"Geez… So much for being completely safe using your girls' abilities…" Marisa commented.

"You should be thankful that they at least helped!" said Sunny Milk, offended.

"Let's start looking for a place to live in, then," Reimu suggested. "We'll also need to gather food for the night."

"Hmmm… I think we can use that two-floored house Unzan and I found…" Ichirin suggested. "It looks big and clean to me."

"Really? Then take us there," Reimu told her.

Ichirin and Unzan took everyone to the house they found. Inside, there were pieces of furniture lying around, and rather than scattered all over the place like most of the other houses, they were properly placed. The group took about a minute to look around the first floor before going to the second floor. Like the first floor, the pieces of furniture there were properly placed.

"Am I the only one here who thinks that someone came and lived in this place not too long ago?" Reimu asked. "This place looks rather tidy when compared to the other buildings we went into…"

"You're right…" said Patchouli, looking around, and then she noticed a table with a notebook and a compass on it. She went over to the table and picked up the notebook out of curiosity.

Kosuzu looked at the notebook and said, "This notebook looks like it came from the outside world! I can tell from the material it is made from." Then she looked at the compass. "This compass… It's definitely from the outside world!"

Patchouli opened the notebook and looked at the contents inside. "It's Japanese in here and not the unknown language in that witch doctor's book…"

Keine came over to look at the contents in the notebook and said, "Strange… How come there's Japanese here? Do the people here know Japanese as well?"

"Kosuzu said that this notebook is made from outside world material, and she may mean the world outside Gensokyo…" Patchouli said. "Combined with the fact that there is Japanese in here… One possible explanation I can think of is that people from our world came here before."

Hearing this, everyone turned to Patchouli and gathered around her to look at the notebook. "Really? Someone other than us came here too?!" Sunny Milk asked.

"What does it say?" Yuugi asked.

"Does it say anything about how to get back home?" Reimu asked.

"You're squeezing me…" Patchouli commented in frustration. Then she sat down on the chair in front of the table and started reading through the contents loudly.

_Day 35_

_I have been counting the number of days we've been here, and it's amazing that we managed to stay alive this long in this savage land, though one of us has already lost his life to those humanoid lizards. You cannot imagine what went on in my mind when I found out that civilization once existed here! Unfortunately, there is nobody left in this ruined village, and I fear to think what might have happened to them… Something tells me that we cannot stay here any longer… The loud roar we hear once in a while that causes pretty much all the creatures here to flee is unsettling… I don't know if I want to know what creature it was that is capable of scaring everything here… We have to find a way to leave this world as soon as possible…_

Once she was done with this page, Patchouli flipped to the next page and continued reading.

_Day 40_

_I think I have stayed here long enough. Two of my friends have lost their lives in this dangerous and savage land. It is time that the last of us find our way out of this world…_

_I still remember very clearly what was in the last page before we found ourselves here… It looks like the top of a temple, and I have every reason to believe that it is the very same temple that can be seen from this tree house. We believe that our way out of here is on top of that temple._

_We have to act fast. The dangers here are way too much for anyone with common sense to want to stay behind._

_I leave behind this notebook and my compass, in case anyone ever stumbled upon this dreadful place…_

_This will without doubt be my last entry. Whether or not we can leave this place and return to our own world is unknown. Even if we die trying, we will at least leave behind hints and the path to the exit with our last breaths…_

_If you are reading this notebook, then I wish you a good luck in making your way home…_

Patchouli flipped to the next page, but saw nothing. "Seems like there's nothing more after this…" she said as she continued flipping through the pages.

"So someone other than us did end up in this world, too," Eirin said. "From the looks of it, they are either now in that temple, or pyramid, or have already returned to their own world. Or maybe they died trying…"

"Let's hope he and his companions managed to find their way home…" Kosuzu said.

"Or in the very least, left behind hints that can help us get home," Marisa said. "I'm quite concerned about the roar mentioned here… I wonder what may have caused that roar… Wait a minute… The roar…"

"Yes… That roar… We heard it, didn't we…?" Ichirin asked. "Remember? While we were still following the flow of the river, we heard a loud roar that caused several birds hiding in the trees to scatter into the air… Even the fish in the water swam around frantically…"

Reimu nodded. "I have feeling that this notebook is referring to that one… I dare say it's the top predator of this place…"

"Well, if that creature ever shows up, I'll give him some good punching!" Yuugi said as she raised her hand and clenched it. "He'll see who the top predator around here is after an encounter with me!"

"You're full of yourself all the time, aren't you…?" Ichirin asked her.

"Hey, don't underestimate the strength of oni," Yuugi told her. "You haven't seen me go serious yet!"

* * *

The group decided to spend the night in that same building. While some of them cleaned up the place, some of the others went into the jungle to hunt for food. They were able to bring back fruits, fish, and even wild boars. Luckily for them, there were equipments and tools for preparing food in the building, as well as the other buildings.

That night, the group ate dinner together in the first floor of the house. "Let's hope the smell doesn't attract the creatures out there," Reimu said while eating a piece of meat.

"We need at least two people guarding this place while the others sleep," Ichirin said. "Since I'm in charge of guarding our temple, Unzan and I will handle that."

"I can help out if you want to," Yuugi said while eating her portion of meat. With the three of us at the door, nobody's going to come in!"

"If the people who came here before us can survive for at least forty days, then I'm sure we can survive just as long, or even longer," Marisa said. "Maybe this place isn't as dangerous as it seems after all."

"Better not let your guard down too much, though," Keine said.

"Oh, you worry too much…" Marisa said to her. "Most of us here are capable of defending ourselves, so there shouldn't be anything to fear. The creatures here shouldn't stand a chance against us! You can guarantee that!"

"Eh… Say whatever you want…" Keine said.

* * *

Eventually, the group was tired, so they decided to turn in for the night on the second floor. As they had decided on earlier, Ichirin, Unzan, and Yuugi stayed on the first floor to keep watch. Unzan floated right outside the door, while Ichirin sat down on a chair inside, just behind the door. Yuugi was sprawled out on the floor in the middle of the room, sleeping and waiting for her turn.

On the second floor, everyone except Patchouli and Eirin were asleep. They were seated in front of the table with a candle, studying the things they found in this village. Patchouli was studying the witch doctor's book, while Eirin analyzed the poison.

"Judging by some of the pictures here," Patchouli said to Eirin, "it seems this book is mainly about creating potions. I wouldn't be surprised if the recipe for that poison can be found here."

"I believe that should be obvious," Eirin said with a nod while looking at a drop of poison on a glass slide using a miniature handheld microscope. "Your book and this poison were found in the same place after all."

"If only I can understand and decipher the language here…" Patchouli said.

"I'm sure you'll find out something soon," Eirin told her. "By the way, this poison has compounds I have never seen before…"

* * *

The next morning, everyone was awake and eating breakfast together at the first floor. "What do you know? The sky here is still yellow," Marisa said while eating fruit. "Guess this is as bright as this place can get."

"Strange, don't you think so?" Ichirin commented.

"So… found out anything?" Reimu asked Patchouli and Eirin.

"Other than the recipe for the poison in the air, no," Patchouli replied.

"The poison is made from substances native to this place, and that book didn't give lots of info on them," Eirin said. "I don't think that should be a problem, given that my antidotes can cure us if we get poisoned by it."

"Well, that sure wasn't very helpful…" Marisa said. "But not like it's going to make our journey back home any harder, is it?"

Suddenly, Star Sapphire had a reaction on her face. "Something is out there!" she said. "And a big one at that!"

Everyone looked out the window, but they saw nothing. They suddenly felt the ground shaking a bit, so most of them got into defensive stances. When the shaking stopped, Yuugi and Reimu walked over to the door and peeked outside to find out what caused the shaking. "Nothing…" Reimu said.

"But that shaking definitely came from here," Yuugi said. "In another part of the village, I think…"

After telling the others that they were going to get to the bottom of this, Reimu went out with Yuugi to look around the village. After walking around the corner of a house, they were shocked to see a legged snake facing a rhinoceros-like creature that was slightly taller than a two-story building. "So that's what caused the shaking…" Yuugi said. "Must be from that… Um… Rhinoceros…"

"That snake with legs… Is it the same one we encountered yesterday…?" Reimu wondered.

The snake hissed at the rhinoceros, and the latter breathed heavily while glaring at the former. It was clear that they both were going to fight each other soon. "We better warn the others…" Reimu said. "If those two go on rampage, then chances are likely that they'll wreck this place…"

"Let's watch a little bit longer, can we?" Yuugi asked. "I want to know what's going to happen next!"

"You love watching fights, don't you…?" Reimu asked her.

The two massive creatures continued to stare at each other when suddenly the sound of things being broken down could be heard, not to mention that the ground shook continuously. The legged snake turned around to see what was approaching him, and the moment he did, a large mouth filled with rows of sharp teeth bit his neck and, with a powerful force, ripped off his head in an instant.

Yuugi and Reimu were shocked at the sight that happened before their eyes. A massive reptilian creature with pupil-less eyes had just tore off the legged snake's head like it was nothing and then flung it in their direction, so they quickly got out of the way to avoid getting hit by it. "Whoa! That was sick, man!" Yuugi commented.

With purple smoke coming out of his nostrils, the reptilian creature roared into the face of the rhinoceros. The latter retaliated by charging into the former, but the creature did not budge an inch at all nor did it show a pained expression of any kind. The reptilian creature attacked with a powerful tail whip that sent the rhinoceros flying through the air and crashing into some buildings. The reptilian creature then performed a huge leap in the rhinoceros's direction. Yuugi and Reimu then heard a cry of agony and the sound of bones being crushed.

"Wha… What was… that…?" said Reimu, trembling.

"Whoa… Quite a monster we have there…" Yuugi said. "Its roar… Doesn't it sound like the one we heard yesterday…?"

Reimu nodded. "I have the same thought as you, too… We better warn the others…" So they quickly returned to the building the others were in and told them everything they saw.

After hearing Reimu's description of the reptilian creature, Kosuzu had a shocked look on her face. While not visible on their faces, Patchouli, Eirin, and Keine looked as if they knew what that creature was, too. "It… It sounds like a… tyrannosaurus …" Kosuzu said while trembling.

"A tyrannosaurus?" Marisa curiously said.

"It's a dinosaur," Eirin explained, "and the fiercest of them to ever existed… It became extinct about 65 million years ago…"

"65 million years ago?! Then why is there one alive here?!" Sunny Milk asked.

"Perhaps they aren't extinct in this world," Patchouli said. "I should've thought that we would be running into dinosaurs after seeing that the bird that captured Ichirin yesterday resembled a Pteranodon… Perhaps it's because that Pteranodons aren't dinosaurs that I didn't think of this…"

Keine looked at the magician with a confused look and asked, "Pteranodons are not dinosaurs?"

Patchouli nodded. "It's a common misconception. All dinosaurs belong to the groups Saurischia and Ornithischia, but Pteranodons don't, so they aren't dinosaurs."

"That's true," Eirin said with a nod.

"Really? All this time, I thought they were dinosaurs…" Keine said.

"The general public thinks that way, but it's not the case," Patchouli said.

"Okay, now that we're done having biology class, what do we do now?" Ichirin asked. "Are we just going to stay here and do nothing?"

"As long as it doesn't see us, it should be fine, I think…" Reimu said.

Everyone stayed inside the building and waited for time to pass, hoping that the tyrannosaurus would eventually leave. After several minutes of waiting, they started to think if the dinosaur was still out there and thought of going out to make sure when suddenly the ground shook. "Something big is approaching…" said Star Sapphire, trembling.

The door and the windows were all closed, and nobody dared to make a single noise, as they fear that it would attract the big thing that they believed was the tyrannosaurus. The shaking became stronger and stronger until it was obvious that the source of it was right outside the door. This made everyone nervous, and some of them tremble in fear.

"Please don't figure out that we're here… Please…" Kosuzu said in her head.

The shaking became softer and softer, meaning that the tyrannosaurus was moving farther and farther from them. When the shaking and the sound of the ground being stomped had completely ceased, Yuugi approached the door and opened it, despite Reimu telling her not to. The oni peeked outside and looked left and right for the T-Rex, but there was sign of the dinosaur. "The coast is clear, it seems…" she said.

After assuring the others that it was indeed safe to come out, they came outside and looked around. "Looks like it's really gone…" Marisa said. "Good thing it didn't see us…"

Suddenly, there was a powerful crash behind them, and pieces of rock rained down around them and also hit some of them from behind. When they turned around, they found themselves looking at the tyrannosaurus, which had crushed the house they were in. "It… It still hasn't… left… yet?!" Reimu said in shock. The dinosaur let a loud roar that caused them to fly back until they hit a building.

Yuugi stood back up and got into fighting stance. "You want to pick a fight with us? Well, guess what? You're getting one right now!" The oni let out a war cry as she flew at the dinosaur and punched him hard in the body. Despite getting hit by a powerful punch from a powerful oni, the T-Rex merely took a step back and didn't show any signs of pain. Yuugi pulled back her fist and moved back a few feet with a look of shock on her face. "What?! No effect?!"

The tyrannosaurus lowered his head at her to devour her, but she quickly moved out of the way and then punched him in the side of the head. However, the effect was the same as before, and then the dinosaur pushed his head in her direction to send her flying quite a bit of a distance.

"I can't believe it?! It managed to withstand two punches from Yuugi?!" Marisa said in shock. "She has one of the strongest punches I know in Gensokyo! How is this possible?!"

The tyrannosaurus turned to the others and tried to stomp them, but they quickly got out of the way. Unzan flew at the dinosaur and punched him across the head several times, but the latter barely moved at all. It was as if the nyuudou was punching a statue. The T-Rex eventually retaliated by chomping on Unzan's fist, but the nyuudou was unharmed and quickly regained by his hand after that. His folded his hands together and then slammed them onto the T-Rex from above with a powerful force. Not only did the T-Rex withstand it, but he also lunged forward to bite the nyuudou almost right after that. Unzan moved out of the way in time, however.

"Impossible…!" Ichirin said in disbelief. "Unzan's punches did nothing to it at all!"

"Then let's see how it likes my Master Spark!" Marisa said as she whipped out her hakkero. "Love Sign: Master Spark!" She took a few seconds to charge up her octagonal device before firing a huge, colorful laser at the dinosaur. However, the T-Rex managed to retain his footing, despite the power of the beam. After several seconds, the beam finally died down, and the witch was shocked to see that the dinosaur was more or less unharmed. "What?! It survived my Master Spark?!"

The T-Rex was going to make a move when suddenly he was hit in the side by a building thrown by Yuugi, but the building shattered into pieces when it hit him. The dinosaur angrily turned to the oni and roared at her before running in her direction. "Bring it! I can take on you any day!" said Yuugi, taunting him.

While the dinosaur was heading for the oni, Reimu took out a spell card and shouted, "Divine Spirit: Fantasy Spirit!" Several large energy orbs that came in various colors appeared from the card and orbited the shrine maiden a few seconds before flying at the dinosaur one after another, striking him all over his back. The T-Rex withstood the projectiles, and then he quickly turned to a building at his side and bit off a chunk of it to throw at the girls and Unzan, but they got out of the way in time.

Yuugi landed and then pulled back her fist. "Big Four Arcanum: Knock Out in Three Steps!" She took one step forward, stomping the ground very hard while saying the number one. She then took the second step while saying the number two, and after stepping forward one more time and saying the number three, she punched the air really hard to send forth a combination of red, light blue, and dark blue energy shots.

The projectiles struck the T-Rex in the right leg and actually caused him to lose his footing and fall to the ground with a loud thud. Yelling for the others to move far away, the oni flew above the fallen T-Rex and raised a spell card into the air. "Feat of Strength: Storm on Mt. Ooe!" The card glowed with white light and then dispersed to become multiple boulders that filled the air around her. When the oni swung down her arm, the boulders rained down on top of the T-Rex, and new boulders would materialize around her when the number decreased.

Despite getting struck rapidly by the boulders, the T-Rex managed to stand back up, and then he jumped very high into the air to catch Yuugi with his mouth, but she quickly flew out of the way. After the dinosaur landed, the oni quickly flew over to the others to rejoin them. "This thing's tougher than he looks!" she said. "I can't believe he's still standing after getting hit by my Knockout in Three Steps and even Storm on Mt. Ooe! Incredible…!"

The tyrannosaurus turned to them and ran in their direction. Reimu quickly slapped several paper amulets onto the ground to create a large translucent wall to serve as a barrier. "I don't know if this barrier can hold him back," Reimu said to the others. "We should run!"

"Run?! Why run when we can try to defeat it instead?" Yuugi asked.

"Can't you see that he's not going down no matter what we use against it?! Just run!" Reimu said to her. Everyone quickly ran from the barrier and the approaching T-Rex. The dinosaur rammed into the barrier and smashed through it in an instant like it was made of paper, much to Reimu's surprise. "What?! He broke through it that easily?!"

"Quick! Head for the sky!" Keine shouted, and everyone did as she said. Unzan picked Kosuzu up and carried her in his hand.

Patchouli suddenly started coughing during her ascension and stopped moving. Star Sapphire turned to look at her and said, "What are you doing? C'mon!"

"Moving too fast isn't good for her!" Marisa said. "Her health is very poor!"

"I'll get her!" Yuugi said as she flew over to Patchouli and picked her up over her shoulder before quickly rejoining the others. The T-Rex ran as fast as he could after the group, who were all flying as fast as they could in the direction of the pyramid.

"Quick! Let's go inside there! Perhaps we can shake him off in there!" Reimu said.

The tyrannosaurus bent down a bit and then leaped forward at a speed faster than his running. Everyone quickly moved out of the way and allowed the dinosaur to go pass them. The T-Rex turned around after landing and roared at them. Eirin loaded an arrow onto her bow, and when the former was pulled back, the arrowhead glowed with bright light. She let go of the bowstring, and the arrow shot forward and left behind a trail of light as it moved. It struck the T-Rex in the snout and created a burst of energy that didn't faze the dinosaur at all.

Keine took out a spell card and raised it into the air. "Ending Sign: Phantasmal Emperor!" The card glowed with bright light and then split into three portals that positioned themselves around her before firing a large amount of energy bullets and lasers at the T-Rex, but despite getting blasted rapidly, the dinosaur ran forward like it was nothing. Keine got out of the way when the dinosaur tried to close his mouth over her.

"Divine Spirit: Fantasy Spirit!" Reimu shouted as she used the spell card where she summoned and fired several colorful energy orbs, but like before, they did not faze or hurt the dinosaur at all.

"I don't believe how you can resist this the second time! Love Sign: Master Spark!" Marisa shouted as she charged up her hakkero and then fired a huge beam at the dinosaur again. The beam struck the dinosaur from the side, but the latter planted his feet against the ground firmly to avoid getting pushed back. He then moved aside to get out of the beam and then ran at the witch, who quickly ended the attack and then got out of the way.

"Let him have it!" Sunny Milk said to her companions, and then they stretched forth their hands to fire bullets rapidly at the dinosaur.

"Demon Buster!" Reimu shouted as she threw several paper amulets at the dinosaur.

The projectiles bombarded the dinosaur from both sides nonstop, and he was annoyed and unsure about which side to go after first. After looking left and right a few times while receiving the shots, the T-Rex opened his mouth and swung his head around to release a large amount of purple gas.

Caught off guard by this, the three fairies and Reimu were engulfed by the gas, which shortly caused them to feel dizzy and cough uncontrollably. "Ack! Cough! Is… Is this… the same poison… as the one in the… air…?" the shrine maiden wondered.

The others were very surprised at the sight of the purple gas coming out from the dinosaur's mouth, even more so when it slowly floated toward the sky and joined the rest of the gas up there. "The poison… That tyrannosaurus… is the source of it…?" Keine said.

"Seems to be the case…" Eirin said.

While Reimu was coughing and slowly descending, the T-Rex ran at her to devour her, but Marisa zoomed at her really fast and snatched her out of harm's way in the nick of time. "Phew… That was close…" said Marisa, holding Reimu in front of herself. "You all right?"

"Do I look… all right to you…?" the shrine maiden replied. Unzan flew over to the three fairies to carry them.

"We need to get a safer place if I want to cure them!" Eirin said. "Retreat for now! There's no use in fighting any longer!"

Everyone escaped from the T-Rex again and flew toward the pyramid with the dinosaur giving chase. When they were getting closer and closer to it, they found out that it was surrounded by a chasm, and a strip of land leading to its entrance was the only way one could access it by foot. "We're almost there!" Marisa said as she began to speed up. "Hang in there, Reimu!"

Eirin suddenly noticed something in front of the entrance, so she shouted for Marisa to stop. Unfortunately, she warned her too late, and the witch and the shrine maiden came to a stop when they tried going through the entrance. "What the?!" Marisa cried when she found that she was stuck with Reimu against something sticky. "What is this?!"

The others came to a stop in front of the two and were shocked to see that a large portion of the front part of the pyramid was covered in thick spider webs. "What is this?! A net?!" Kosuzu asked.

"No… It's a giant spider web!" Eirin corrected her.

"Look at the thickness of that web! The spider that made this must be gigantic!" Yuugi commented.

The T-Rex jumped at the strip of land they landed on. When the dinosaur landed, his weight instantly caused cracks to spread throughout the strip of land, and then in a few seconds, the strip of land shattered, causing the dinosaur to fall to the bottom of the chasm. Unfortunately for Marisa and Reimu, the bottom part of the web was connected to the strip of land, so when the latter shattered and fell down the chasm, the part of the web covering the entrance was dragged down along, so the both of them went down too.

"YAAAAAAAAAAAA!" Marisa screamed.

"MARISA! REIMU!" Kosuzu and Keine gasped.

* * *

TO BE CONTINUED

I once had a dream where several video game characters are facing off against a massive T-Rex with pupil-less eyes, and the latter proved to be a durable foe. Yuugi was one of the characters fighting him. I discussed with my friend over MSN about how I think it would be cool to have a story idea that involves this T-Rex. Guess what? I think you get it already…


	4. Voyage from the Low Point

**Chapter 4  
Voyage from the Low Point**

* * *

Accompanied by debris, Marisa screamed as she and Reimu, both stuck to the spider web, fell down the chasm. Fortunately for them, or unfortunately, they fell onto another spider web below. The tyrannosaurus continued falling to the bottom of the chasm, and due to his weight, the spider webs all over the place could not catch him.

"Phew… Guess this is better than joining him at the bottom…" Marisa said, and then she looked at Reimu. "Reimu, are you all right?" The shrine maiden, due to being poisoned, was too weak to reply in any form. "I guess not…"

The others descended to the same level as the two, and Keine said to them, "Thanks goodness you're all right! We'll get you out right away!"

"And fast, please," Marisa said. "The last I want is having a giant spider suck me dry…" Suddenly, she felt the web vibrating. Everyone turned to look at the side and saw a bizarre-looking spider the size of a van walking toward the witch and the shrine maiden. "Me and my big mouth…"

The spider had a circular body that was dark red in color, and there were eyes on all sides of its body—eight in total—in between of each its legs.

"Whoa… That's the scariest and ugliest-looking spider I've ever seen!" Yuugi commented.

"A little help here already?!" said Marisa, starting to become afraid when the spider came closer and closer.

Eirin readied her bow and arrow and aimed it at the spider, "I'll handle that!" However, before she had the chance to let go of the bowstring, the spider stood up on its hind legs to reveal its octopus-like mouth underneath its body, and when it opened, a sticky net shot out at a blinding speed, covering Eirin almost from to toe. "What the?!" The spider started pulling her in.

Everyone else was shocked by this. Keine quickly took out a spell card and used it to create a sword. "Land Sign: Three Sacred Treasures—Sword!" With the sword in her hand, Keine flew in front of Eirin and slashed the web, cutting it. The spider moved back a bit and then stood up on its hind legs again, this time firing the net at Keine. "Ya!"

Despite being covered in web, Eirin tried her best to aim her arrow at the spider and then fired it, striking the arachnid in the eye at the front. The giant arachnid let out a cry that sounded a combination of hissing and screeching before falling off the side, bringing with it the net containing Keine. "Oh no!" Eirin said in shock.

"Great! Just when we thought we only had to pull Marisa and Reimu back to the top to settle things!" Yuugi said.

"Hey! We're in trouble again here!" Marisa shouted while looking at another spider of the same kind crawling down the cliff wall toward Reimu and her.

Ichirin pointed at the spider and shouted for Unzan to fire his eye beam at it, and the nyuudou did as told and fired a pair of red beams at the arachnid. He managed to knock the spider off the wall and to the bottom of the chasm.

Yuugi then handed Patchouli over to Unzan and said, "You take care of her! I'll go down and help Keine!"

Ichirin nodded. "Okay. We'll also help Marisa and Reimu in the meantime" The oni then headed for the bottom of the chasm.

* * *

The spider Eirin shot was upside-down at the bottom of the chasm unconsciously. Though she survived the fall, Keine was still badly hurt from it, and she was also trying to free herself from the sticky net, which was still connected to the spider's mouth. "Ugh… Get off me already…" she said while trying to free herself. When she heard roars and the sound of stomping coming from nearby, she turned around to see the T-Rex fighting a horde of spiders. "Oh no…"

The T-Rex was easily taking out the spiders. With powerful tail whips, stomping, and chomping, the dinosaur managed to kill several of the spiders. Even their webs weren't working against him, as he easily ripped through them.

Fearing that the dinosaur would eventually turn his attention to her, Keine struggled even more to free herself with the help of her sword. However, due to not being able to swing her sword hard enough in her current state and also because of the toughness of the web, she was having a hard time doing so. Yuugi landed next to her and asked, "Are you all right?"

"Get me out of this!" Keine told her. "Use this if you have… NEXT TO YOU!" Yuugi turned to the side just in time to see a spider standing up to fire a net at her, but she managed to avoid it by jumping back. "You want a piece of me? Take this instead!" She jumped at the spider and punched the top of its body hard to smash it against the ground. Yuugi then picked up the spider and spun in circles a few times before flinging it away.

The spider flew in the direction of the tyrannosaurus just as it was finishing off the last spider by smacking it away with his tail. When the spider flew into him and bounced off his body, the dinosaur turned to Yuugi, who was using Keine's sword to cut the web, so he moved in their direction. Yuugi managed to cut off the part of the web that was connecting Keine to the spider, and then the former turned to face the approaching dinosaur. "Ready for another round? I'll gladly take on you!" Yuugi said to him.

"But he's too strong to be defeated!" Keine reminded her. "We have to escape instead!"

"An oni doesn't back down from a fight so easily! There's no way this thing can stay up forever if I keep on attacking him!" Yuugi said, and then she flew at the dinosaur with the sword pulled back. "Eat this!" She thrust the sword at the dinosaur's chest, but to her surprise, the sword snapped in half instead. "What?!"

The oni backed off in shock and looked at her broken half of the sword. The dinosaur lowered his head to devour her, but she got out of the way in time and delivered a punch to his eye. The eye had always been a weak spot for all living creatures, and this was no different for the T-Rex. The dinosaur pulled his head back into the air and roared in pain. The oni then flew at his chest and punched it as hard as she could multiple times, but when it wasn't doing anything and the dinosaur moved back from her, she flew over to his tail and grabbed the tip of it.

The oni attempted to spin the tyrannosaurus in circles before flinging him away by the tail, but instead, she found herself flung against the cliff wall when the dinosaur swung his tail. Before she could pull herself off the wall, the dinosaur smashed her by the body against it.

SMAAAAAAAAAAAASH!

"YUUGI!" Keine gasped.

The dinosaur pulled back his tail, and then Yuugi fell onto the ground, grunting in pain. The dinosaur then brought down his foot to crush her, but she brought up her hands and to keep that from happening. She did not expect the tyrannosaurus's strength to be massive, so she found herself slowly being pressed down. "He's… strong…"

"Yuugi!" Keine shouted, and then she took out a spell card. "Ending Sign: Phantasmal Emperor!" The card created three portals that fired laser beams and energy bullets at the dinosaur. Annoyed, the T-Rex ignored Yuugi and headed for Keine, who quickly flew out of the way when the dinosaur was close to her.

She didn't notice a spider sneaking up behind her, and by the time Yuugi shouted at her regarding this, the spider was already up on its hind legs, ready to devour the were-hakutaku. That never happened, however, as a sticky, pink appendage suddenly caught the spider and then pulled it back into the mouth of a gigantic gecko-like creature with spines running down its back that came out of a cave. Not satisfied with just eating a spider, the gecko lashed out its tongue at Keine, but the T-Rex, not wanting anyone else to take his prey, stomped its tongue just before it reached Keine, making it look as if he saved her.

The gecko pulled back its tongue in pain when the dinosaur lifted his foot, and while the dinosaur was focusing his attention on the former, Keine quickly flew over to Yuugi. Helping her up by the shoulder, Keine asked the oni, "Are you all right?"

"No big deal," Yuugi replied. "I can shrug it off easily." Just then, they saw the others descending to them.

"Are you all right?" Ichirin asked them.

"No problem, I think," Yuugi told them. "I see that you managed to free Marisa and Reimu. How'd you do that?"

Patchouli, who was sitting on Unzan's hand, said after coughing a little bit, "I used fire magic to burn the web."

"And it nearly set us on fire…" Marisa commented. "Good thing she used water magic afterwards…"

"Oh, so you're feeling better," Yuugi said to Patchouli.

"Only a bit, just enough to be able to cast magic," the magician said. "Sorry that my body cannot stand moving around too much or too fast…"

Eirin looked at the tyrannosaur and the gecko fighting each other and then saw an entrance at the bottom of the cliff wall. "There's a cave over there," she told the others. "Let's run in there while those two are dealing with each other."

This idea sounded good to them, so they quickly headed into the entrance. After running several feet into the passage within it, Eirin looked back at the entrance and said, "We should be safe here. This entrance is too small for that tyrannosaurus to come in after all."

Keine inspected the wall and touched it. "This wall… There's no way this is natural… It's actually man-made… Even the entrance… It's way too square-shaped to be a natural cave."

Kosuzu notice something on the wall and said, "There's even a torch here! Someone must've built this place!"

Keine continued feeling around the wall until she came across what she believed were carvings, but it was too dark to tell what it was. She told Patchouli to light up some of the torches, and the magician did as told using fire magic. With the torches lit up, they were able to see what the carvings on the wall were. "It looks like a map…" said Keine, inspecting the carving.

"Seems so," Kosuzu said with a slight nod. "From the look of it, it is a picture of the temple and the piece of land it was built on top of. Looks like there are passages leading to the temple from below…"

"That would mean we are currently at the bottom," said Eirin, placing her finger at the lowest part of the map. "We should be able to reach the temple from here if we follow the paths shown."

"Looks like it's going to be a long climb to the top, however," Patchouli said. "However, it may be the safer option, considering the dangers outside…"

"Right," Eirin agreed. "Perhaps it's much safer if we travel from here. It may be time-consuming, but as long as we keep on moving and know where we are going, we will eventually get to the temple. Anyway, I better start treating the others. Let's see if we can find a more spacious place first."

* * *

Outside, the tyrannosaurus had slain the giant gecko by tearing off a huge chunk of its neck. The dinosaur then consumed its dead prey. After he was done, he looked around as if looking for the group from Gensokyo, and when he couldn't find them, he turned his attention to the cave the gecko came out from and then went inside it.

* * *

After continuing down the passage, the group eventually came to a more spacious room. There, they took a rest to allow Eirin to treat Reimu and the three fairies. She also checked to see if Keine, Yuugi, and Patchouli were in good condition.

Yuugi was in a good condition, while Keine only suffered from a few scratches and swellings. Patchouli was given a medicine to help ease her asthma. Reimu and the fairies lied down to take a rest after being given antidotes. "Well, that takes care of things," Eirin said. "All of us better be in good conditions before we continue on our way."

"I realized that we don't have anything to eat with us," Marisa said. "I hope we can find stuff to eat on the way to the top..."

"Lasting for days without eating is possible, so long as you drink water, which is more vital for the human body," Eirin said.

"I think I can handle the water part," Patchouli told her. "Water magic is also one of my specialties. The cleanliness quality shouldn't be a problem. I once used it to make tea, and I had no health issues from drinking it."

"Let's hope…" Maria said. "I think it's better than drinking water extracted from the ground. It's water extracted out of thin air, so it should be safe, right?"

"It's created from magic, and chances are likely that magical elements found in it can affect the human body somehow," Eirin said. "I don't think that should be an issue, however, given that all of us here have magical powers, except for Kosuzu. Maybe I'm worrying too much…"

"Maybe it was better off that you didn't say that…" Kosuzu said to her. "Now you're making me afraid about drinking water made by Patchouli…"

Keine looked around and said, "By the way… Why would the natives here build a way to the temple from down here? Did they make this for people who accidentally fall to the bottom and need to make it to the top?"

Ichirin turned to the side and noticed weapons such as spears, maces, and axes hanging on the wall. "Whatever the case is, I think those weapons are good indicators that the way to the top won't be a safe trip…"

Yuugi looked at those weapons and said, "Didn't notice them earlier… I guess you're right… If they have weapons here, then it's likely we'll be running into dangerous creatures if we keep on moving forward… So basically, once you fall down and then come here, it's a fight for survival to the top. Sounds like some sort of a game to me."

"For a fight-happy oni like you, maybe…" Marisa commented. "I hope things aren't like the both of you said… I'm having enough of the dangers in this world already… Did you see how that tyrannosaurus resisted our attacks? Are tyrannosauruses really that powerful? Maybe that's why dinosaurs are extinct! The tyrannosauruses kept on killing other dinosaurs until they have nothing left to eat and then starved to death!"

"I doubt that tyrannosaurus is normal," Patchouli said. "The last time I checked in a book about dinosaurs, tyrannosauruses aren't that big, nor are they that durable. The one we saw is easily twice the size of normal ones, and they do not have the ability to breathe poison as well. I'm sure they can't jump that well, too."

"Right," Kosuzu said with a nod. "I've read quite a bit about dinosaurs, too, and tyrannosauruses definitely are not like the one we saw. That one is beyond normal…"

"Which brings up the matter about the poison it released from its mouth… It looks exactly like the one in the air, and Reimu and the fairies suffered the exact same symptoms as Ichirin when she got carried into the poison by that Pteranodon," Eirin stated. "The witch doctor's book also showed the ingredients for this poison… All these are without doubt connected…"

"Perhaps it is also related to why there is nobody living in that village anymore," Keine added. "I'm convinced that the tyrannosaurus is responsible for wiping out everyone there, and that fact that it can breathe poison may have to do with the witch doctor."

Patchouli placed her fingers underneath her chin and thought for a while before saying something. "So the tyrannosaurus started off as a normal one, but the witch doctor must've made it more powerful and also allowed it to breathe poison… In the end, the dinosaur wiped out the entire village… Judging from the amount of poison in the air, I dare say that this happened a very long time ago… This is my theory on what happened…"

"Why would the witch doctor do that?" Marisa asked. "It easily turned out to be the biggest mistake ever made!"

As they were talking about this, Reimu opened her eyes and slowly sat up. Kosuzu noticed this and told the others about it. Eirin went up to the shrine maiden, and at the same time, the three fairies were getting back up. "Feeling better already?" she asked them.

"Better now," Reimu said. "Thanks a lot for your help. I don't know what we should do without you here."

"It's always a good idea to have a doctor wherever you go, isn't it?" said Eirin.

"Anyway, I overheard what you all were talking about," Reimu said. "If getting to the temple from here is the best idea, then we'll go with that. I wouldn't think too much about what happened to the civilization here and the origin of that tyrannosaurus, as it's not like finding out those are going to help us get back home."

"That's true, but it's still not a bad idea to learn about certain things," Eirin said. "Who knows? They may actually end up proving useful to us!"

Reimu stood up and did a few stretches. "All right, if you're all feeling better, then we should keep on moving. I have enough of this place already, and I'm sure you all agree."

"Right," Marisa said with a nod. "Also, I'm sure the people back at Gensokyo are wondering about where we are now…"

"Almost forgot about them…" Eirin said. "I hope the princess is coping well with my absence… Reisen and Tewi better take good care of her…"

"Mistress Hijiri must be wondering why I've been gone for so long, too…" Ichirin said. "I wonder if she's going to believe my explanation…"

"We'll go to her together to prove things if she doesn't," Marisa told her. "There's no way she still won't believe you after hearing us say the same thing to her."

"Yeah, that should convince her…" Ichirin said with a nod.

With that, the group headed through the door at the far end of the room to begin finding their way to the temple from below.

* * *

TO BE CONTINUED

Not every chapter has to be long, you know.


	5. Swarming Danger

**Chapter 5  
Swarming Danger**

* * *

With torches that they took with them from the room they set out from, the group from Gensokyo made their way through the lighted passage, eventually stepping out in a spacious area that was partially covered in plants. There were also mushrooms and insects giving off light all over the place. "Ooooh… Glowing mushrooms! I've read about them in books!" Marisa commented.

"Those are foxfires," Patchouli explained. "They glow using the same concept as fireflies and glowworms."

Suddenly, bright light headed in their direction, blinding them temporarily. When the light went far from them and allowed them to open their eyes again, they looked at it and saw a large firefly, the size of an average dog, flying through the air. "Wow! That's one big firefly!" Sunny Milk commented.

"I can say the same for this one, too…" said Luna Child, looking at a glowworm the size of a cat slowly crawling by them.

"Nice of them to provide us with light," Reimu said. "Hope they won't come after us, though…"

"Fireflies and glowworms are harmless, so I doubt they'll come after us," Keine said. "Though judging by their size, it's best not to get on their bad side…"

The group continued through the cave, walking up a set of stairs while admiring the glowing living things that were all over the place. "The sight here is quite beautiful if you ask me," Kosuzu said. "It's not often that you see a place full of bioluminescent creatures! Wish we have a camera to take a picture of this place…"

"I find it more of creepy if you ask me…" Star Sapphire said.

After getting to the top of the staircase, they went into a passage that had foxfires all over the walls, thus making the interior color green. Marisa plucked one of the mushrooms and inspected it. "I'll be taking one with me if nobody minds about it!" Then she put it in her pocket.

Eventually, they exited the passage, and as there were no more foxfires and bioluminescent insects, the whole place became dark again. Thanks to their torches, they managed to see what was ahead of themselves.

The group silently traveled through the cave and occasionally saw bats hanging upside-down from the ceiling. Some flew around, minding their own businesses. Reimu looked as far up ahead as she could and saw something. "I see stairs over there. C'mon, let's go!"

While they heading over there, a bat flying too low accidentally burned itself when flying over the torch Ichirin was carrying over her head. The burned bat screeched loudly with its belly slightly on fire, and when it flew into a large group of bats that were hanging close to each other, it startled all of them. The whole place quickly found itself filled with bats flying all over the place, constantly screeching.

The girls screamed as they ran as fast as they could for the staircase, trying not to run into the bats or let them harass them. Eventually, they made it to the staircase and ran up it to another area. After entering the new area, Marisa said, "Phew… That was insane… Good thing we managed to escape without getting our blood sucked dry, assuming those are vampire bats…"

"In reality, vampire bats don't suck blood. Instead, they bite their victims and then lap their blood," Patchouli told her.

Reimu looked up ahead and saw orange light shining out of another room, so she told the others about it. "That's pretty bright for bioluminescent creatures…" Keine said. "Maybe there's a large amount of them there, or maybe it's a very big one?"

"Whatever the case is, that is the only path we can take now, so let's go there," Reimu said. "Be on your guard for danger, though."

The group headed over to the light and went into the next room, and they were surprised at the sight before their eyes. Majority of the room was covered in web-like substances, and what appeared to be cocoons were hanging from all over the place. They could also see large insects resembling brown praying mantises flying and crawling around the place. "What is this place…?" the shrine maiden said.

"I think we came into a place we shouldn't be coming to…" Marisa said.

"It's an insect hive…" Patchouli said. "Judging by the appearance of those mantis-like insects, they appear to be dangerous and carnivorous." As soon as she said this, several insects flew in their direction and hovered in front of them.

"Uh oh… What do we do…?" asked Kosuzu, scared.

"Calm down… It's likely that they won't attack us if we don't make a move…" said Eirin as she readied her bow and arrow.

One of the insects let out a screeching sound before charging at Reimu to attack with its scythe-like arm, but the shrine maiden and those around her ducked, and then they all moved out in different directions. "Obviously, we're not welcomed here!" Reimu said as she took out paper amulets.

"I can see that-ze!" Marisa said as she took out her hakkero. One of the insects flew at her, but she fired a beam at it and blasted it away. "Narrow Spark!" Another insect tried to attack her from the side, but she quickly jumped out of the way and knocked it back with her broom before blasting it with Narrow Spark.

An insect swung its arm at Eirin, who used her bow to block the attack. She pushed back the insect using the bow and then quickly took out a scalpel to slash it in the body before shooting it with an arrow. Another insect tried to get her from behind, but she saw this coming and thus rolled to the side fast. She fired an arrow at its head immediately afterwards.

Yuugi delivered a powerful punch to an insect's head, so powerful that she knocked the head off the body and sent it flying in another insect the air, knocking it out. When she saw two insects flying at her from the side, she picked up the headless insect's body and flung it at them, knocking them out of the air.

"Fire Sign: Akiba Summer!" Patchouli shouted as she created a trail of fire that moved in circles around her, burning up the insects that flew at her. After the fire disappeared, Patchouli looked up and saw another insect diving at her, so she made a stream of water shoot straight up in front of the insect, knocking it upward. "Winter Element!"

While the battle with the insects raged on, the three fairies watched from behind a rock in fear. "We… We should do something!" Sunny Milk said. "We can't just hide here and do nothing! We're all in this together!"

"What can we do…?" Luna Child asked. "Our attacks are not as powerful compared to the others…"

Star Sapphire suddenly felt a presence coming from behind, so she turned around and saw an insect looking at them. "BEHIND US!" The three fairies quickly leaped over the rock to escape the insect before it slashed them, and the rock got cut in two.

"Whoa! Their arms are that sharp?!" Sunny Milk said in shock. The insect charged at them, and Luna Child and Star Sapphire shrieked in fear, but Sunny Milk stretched forth her hands and fired projectiles that knocked the insect onto its back. "Ha! Take that! Don't underestimate us!" But then several insects surrounded them. "Uh oh…"

Suddenly, a red energy ball flew into the insects, and since the projectile moved in a curved trajectory, it traveled around the fairies and took out a most of the insects. They all turned to see that it was Keine who fired the energy ball. The remaining insects went for Keine, but Unzan's giant fist flew into them from the side, obliterating them.

Reimu flew and jumped around the place while throwing homing amulets constantly to take out the insects that were following her and the ones close to her. After landing from her jump, she looked around to see more insects appearing, and some were even starting to come out of their cocoons in adult forms. "This is not good…" she said. "There's simply too many of them… At this rate, we're going to tire ourselves out before we can wipe them all out…"

"Getting tired?" Yuugi, who was standing nearby, said as she punched away some insects. "I can do this forever!"

"Don't always think of yourself, can you…?" Reimu said to her. "We should get out of here instead! The path is still going up ahead, so I'm sure we can get out of here if we follow it. Everyone, let's go already!"

"Heard ya!" Marisa said, and after shooting down an insect with a barrage of star-shaped projectiles, she turned to run down the path with the others. At the same time, they repelled any insects that came close to them.

After running around the corner, the girls came to a stop in shock when they saw a gigantic insect with a massive six-legged abdomen and a towering thorax. Its head reached so high up into the air that it almost touched the ceiling. "Oh no… Don't tell me that we ran into the queen…" Reimu said.

"Yeah, it has to be the queen…" Marisa said with a nod. "But don't you think that the size difference between her and the normal ones is a bit too… drastic…?"

The insect queen screeched loudly before bringing down her massive scythe arms at the girls, but they scattered in various directions to avoid it. Standing in front of a frightened Kosuzu, Keine said to the storeowner, "Don't worry; I'll ensure your safety!"

Yuugi ran at the queen with her fist pulled back. "I'll take you out in a single punch! Eat my fist!" With swift movement, she jumped at the queen and landed a powerful punch to her body that caused her to take several steps backward while crying in pain. "Haha! How'd you like that?"

Reimu threw several paper amulets at the queen, Marisa fired energy stars rapidly, the three fairies fired energy projectiles, and Unzan fired eye beams. After they were done bombarding the queen, Patchouli stepped forward to perform an attack. "Fire Metal Sign: St. Elmo's Pillar!" she shouted as she struck the ground with her hand. Her hand glowed with orange energy, and then a pillar of fire suddenly shot up from below the insect, burning her badly.

Other than Reimu and Marisa, the others had never seen Patchouli using this move before, so they were amazed by it, especially the three fairies. However, the queen insect was still conscious after the fire disappeared, though badly burned. The insect looked at them in anger and then screeched loudly. Immediately, several insects entered the scene and surrounded the girls, as if responding to their queen's cry.

"Looks like we really made them mad…" Marisa nervously said. "Any ideas on how to get out of this, or do we do things the old fashioned way?"

"I don't mind choosing the latter!" Yuugi said while punching her palm.

"I'll handle this!" Ichirin said before floating into the air with Unzan. "I advise you all to duck!" They both stretched their fists to the sides, and then Ichirin pressed herself against Unzan's body. "Accumulating Disorder: Foreseeing Cumulonimbus Cloud!" They both spun really fast, not only battering the insects around them when the former flew at them, but also forming a cyclone around themselves that blew them away.

Though Ichirin told the other girls to duck, they were, for the most part, safe from getting caught in the attack or getting sucked up by the wind, as it was like the eye of a storm underneath Ichirin and Unzan, calm and having only a little wind. "Wow! This is cool!" Kosuzu said in awe.

"Trust me; you won't like the pain if you get hit by those fists!" Marisa told her.

When Unzan and Ichirin stopped spinning, all the insects around them, except for the queen, were knocked out. The queen screeched loudly and angrily at the sight of seeing her minions defeated, and then she lunged forward to attack the demon and the nyuudou with her scythe arms.

Ichirin dodged one of the strikes, but Unzan allowed himself to get hit, as his cloud-like body granted him invulnerability to physical attacks. "Storm Sign: Nowaki Cloud of Buddhist Retribution!" Ichirin shouted before punching the air rapidly. Unzan followed her movements, except his fists came in contact with the queen, hitting her rapidly.

POW SMASH POW SMASH BAM SOCK SMASH POW SOCK SMASH BAM!

After the final blow was dealt, the insect queen flew back and crashed into the wall, falling unconscious. Thinking that the giant insect was down for the count, the three fairies and Kosuzu clapped their hands in amazement. "Wow! That was awesome!" Sunny Milk said. "You defeated that giant bug by yourself!"

"Your attacks probably weakened her, too," Ichirin said, "so it's our combined effort that defeated her!"

Yuugi gave Unzan a thumb up. "Nice punching you've got there! Maybe we should find some time to spar together!" The nyuudou blushed at the fact that he got praised and also nodded slightly, agreeing with the idea of having a spar with the oni.

Keine looked at the unconscious and dead insects around the place, and she saw some looking at them from the distance, but seeing that their queen was defeated, they didn't dare to come after the girls and the nyuudou. "I think we better get out of here," Keine suggested.

Patchouli nodded. "I agree. We defeated a large number of these insects and even their queen, so the rest are likely to avenge them sooner or later."

"Though it looks like they're afraid of us," said Reimu, looking at the insects that were watching from afar. "Anyway, I have enough of these bugs, so let's beat it!"

So the group quickly continued down the path, heading for the entrance that would lead them to a new room.

* * *

TO BE CONTINUED

Short chapter again, but at least it came out fast, which is also good, right?

I know the action didn't last long nor is it all that intense and exciting, but it can't be helped if the opponents are much weaker compared to the main characters. Sure, I can make those insects very tough for the girls to deal with, but I felt that it would be too unrealistic. There is an explanation behind that T-Rex being very powerful and near unstoppable, but not for these insects.

Still, I hope you enjoyed this chapter.


	6. There to Here and Then to There

The more I think about the previous chapter, the more I find it to be rather disappointing. The action wasn't good enough and the fight wasn't intense, too… The characters didn't even seem to convey much emotion, too… Let's hope I can make this chapter more exciting.

**Chapter 6  
There to Here and Then to There**

* * *

After escaping from the insect hive, the girls continued moving through the cave to get to the pyramid.

Marisa's stomach suddenly let out a growling sound. Placing her hands on her belly, she said, "I'm hungry… It should be lunch time, isn't it?"

"Hard to tell if you can't see the sky," said Keine, looking at her. "I'm sure everyone is feeling tired and hungry by now."

The stomachs of the three fairies growled as well. "Yeah, you're right…" Sunny Milk said with her hands on her belly. "Would be nice if we can sit down and get something to eat…"

"But there's nothing here to eat…" Luna Child reminded her.

Eirin nodded. "The only way of obtaining food I can think of is to hunt the creatures here, but we've mainly only encountered insects… I know certain kinds of insects are edible, but I'm not sure about large ones we've found… I don't think any of you here are interested in eating them as well…"

Marisa took out the foxfire she picked from the cave wall some time ago. "I've got this, but seeing how it is glowing, I don't think it's safe for consumption…"

Reimu looked around and said, "Guess we'll have to try our luck and see if we can find anything edible around here… Let's hope some large edible animal shows up…" Then she turned to look at Star Sapphire. "Oh yeah… Almost forgot about you… Sensed anything moving nearby?"

"I can probably sense better if I'm not hungry, but I'll try anyway," Star Sapphire said, and then she closed her eyes and concentrated on trying to sense for anything that was moving around them.

The others looked at her and patiently waited for an answer. "Are you sure this is going to work?" Marisa asked. "If she sensed something, she would've notified us earlier."

"She's actually sensing movements all around herself all the time," Sunny Milk told her, "but there's no point in telling everyone everything she sensed. She'll only let us know if she thinks it's something important."

"Makes sense," Keine said with a nod.

Star Sapphire eventually opened her eyes, and Reimu asked her, "Well, did you sense anything?"

"I did," Star Sapphire said with a nod, and then she pointed to a certain direction. "I sensed more than one thing moving in that direction, and it's not very far either."

"Let's hope it's something edible and doesn't want to kill us," Marisa said.

The girls then headed in that direction. After about a minute of walking, they came to a shallow pool of water that had several fish swimming around in it. Reimu looked at the fish and asked Star Sapphire, "Are these fish the ones you're talking about?"

The fairy nodded in response. "I'm sure the movements I sensed came from them."

"These fish look pretty normal and harmless," Yuugi said. "Let's hope they taste good!"

* * *

Several minutes later, the girls had filled their stomachs from eating the fish, which were thankfully edible. Patchoul also provided them with water. She made water pour out from her hands magically, and the girls took turns putting their hands underneath the water to drink from it. After she was done drinking, Marisa went away to let Reimu have her turn. "That was refreshing!" the witch said while shaking her hand dry. "Thanks a lot, Patchy!"

"Hope it won't have any effect on our bodies," Reimu said after she was done drinking, and then she let the person behind her, Kosuzu, drink the water.

"I told you already that it will be all right, as I drank it before and didn't suffer any consequences," Patchouli told her. "You don't believe me, don't you?"

"Maybe that's because you're the one who made that water, and you're unaffected by your own magic," Reimu said to her. "Anyway, let's hope it's really as you said…"

After everyone had drunk the water, Patchouli helped herself to it by forming a miniature fountain in her mouth and drinking from it. After she was done drinking, Star Sapphire suddenly sensed something. Seeing her expression, Sunny Milk asked her, "Something's close by again, right?"

The fairy in blue nodded with a nervous look on her face. "Yes, and it's…" Before she could finish her phrase, the ground shook, and everyone looked around in shock.

"What… What was that…?" Kosuzu said in fear while cowering behind Reimu.

As the tremor continued, Star Sapphire looked in the direction of a cliff not too far away and said, "It's coming from down there…"

"I'll go see what it is," Yuugi said as she began walking over to the cliff, but Reimu stopped her.

"Wait! It's better to let Sunny Milk make us invisible first," Reimu suggested. "Judging by the tremor just now, it's definitely something we wouldn't want to be seen by."

"You're… You're right…" Sunny Milk said with a nod. "I'll immediately make everyone invisible." She raised her hands into the air and created a ball of light. However, the ball of light was only formed for a second when something jumped up from below the cliff and landed in front of them.

CRASH!

Everyone's eyes widened in horror upon seeing that it was the tyrannosaurus that had appeared. "IT'S HIM AGAIN!" Marisa screamed.

"But how come?! How did it get inside here?!" Keine said in disbelief.

The T-Rex let out a roar and then stomped in their direction with his head lowered, but the group quickly scattered in various directions. Yuugi turned around after running a bit of a distance and said, "You're back for a second round, aren't you? I'll gladly take on you again! Prepare yourself!"

The oni ran at the dinosaur and punched him in the snout, but like before, the latter was able to withstand the punch. The dinosaur pulled his head into the air and then performed a quick tail whip that Yuugi tried to block using her arm, but the strength of his attack sent her flying into the wall.

CRASH!

Unzan fired eyes beam at the tyrannosaurus, while Ichirin swung her ring against the air to fire ring-shaped projectiles. The dinosaur withstood the attacks and then ran in their direction. Ichirin punched the air rapidly while shouting, "Raging Running Cloud!" Unzan mimicked her movements, unleashing a barrage of super fast punches to stop the dinosaur in his tracks while striking him rapidly. "Iron Fist Hanging Cloud!" Ichirin then punched the ground with such a force that she created a miniature crater. The nyuudou followed her movement by bringing down his fist from above the dinosaur, striking him hard in the head.

SMAAAAAAAASH!

The tyrannosaurus only took a second to recover from the attack and then roar into the nyuudou's face while breathing poison at him. The nyuudou was also blown back by the force of the sound. When the girl's saw the poison spreading out, they quickly moved away from it. From a safe distance, Ichirin pulled her fists to the sides while shouting, "Small Kamitate Cloud!" She smashed her fists against each other, and the nyuudo did the same, only his fists were charged with electricity for a few seconds before he smashed the tyrannosaurus in between them.

Not only was getting crushed in between the fists useless against the dinosaur, but he was also unfazed by the electricity. Unzan moved back as the dinosaur roared at him angrily, and then the latter moved forward and tried to tear him to pieces with his mouth. Cloud particles scattered all over the place as the dinosaur gnashed his teeth against the air several times. The cloud particles moved away from the dinosaur and gathered together to become the nyuudou again.

"Man! Unzan's giving that monster his best shot, but nothing is working against it at all!" Marisa said in disbelief. "How on earth is that dinosaur so powerful?!"

"On the bright side, Unzan is immune to his attacks, too," Reimu said.

"Everything has as weakness, so that tyrannosaurus should be no different," Eirin said. "If only we know the truth behind its invulnerability, then we may be able to find out its weakness…"

Unzan and the tyrannosaurus continued their fight when suddenly a combination of red, light blue, and dark blue energy shots struck the back of the latter's head, almost making him fall over. After using Knockout in Three Steps, Yuugi swung her arms against the air to make the chains hanging down from her handcuffs fire projectiles that resembled chains. "Shackles Sign: Criminals' Irremovable Shackles!"

The energy chains wrapped around the dinosaur's neck, tail, and legs and exploded shortly afterwards. Yuugi shouted for Unzan to knock him over by hitting him in the legs as hard as he could. Though the nyuudou had no idea what she was planning to do, he did as she said. Firing electrically-charged fists at the legs, which were mostly shrouded in the smoke created by the chains' explosions, Unzan managed to make the T-Rex fall over on his front.

Yuugi then grabbed the tip of the dinosaur's tail, asking for Unzan to help at the same time. The nyuudou understood what she was doing, so he quickly rushed over and grabbed the dinosaur's tail before he stood back up. With all their strength, the oni and the myuudou spun the dinosaur in circles, while the other girls watched in amazement.

After swinging the tyrannosaurus in circle several times, Yuugi and Unzan let go of their hands to send him flying through the air, going over the cliff. "Fly away!" Yuugi shouted when she hurled the dinosaur away.

The tyrannosaurus sped toward the wall not too far away, but in an act that surprised everyone, he flipped around in midair so that he was able to plant his feet against the wall, and then with a powerful kick off of it, the dinosaur shot back in the direction of the Yuugi and Unzan. They both quickly moved out of the way when the dinosaur came close to them and landed, sliding across it for a while before coming to a stop and then standing back up. "He can do something like that?!" Yuugi said in disbelief.

The T-Rex roared at them and then approached them, and then Patchouli swung her arm against the air to create and fire large amount of metal blades at him. "Autumn's Edge!" The blades, however, bounced off the dinosaur's skin harmlessly. Seeing that this attack didn't work, she summoned large buzzsaws and sent them flying at him. "Autumn Blade!" The buzzsaws grinded continuously against the dinosaur's skin, but they eventually disappeared and left behind no scratch marks on him.

"It's no use… None of our attacks are working against it…" Keine nervously said. "We can never hope to defeat it…"

The dinosaur roared again and then ran forward with his mouth wide open, but the girls quickly escaped to the side. Turning to the dinosaur, Patchouli said, "I'll use my most devastating attack! Let's hope it does something to him!"

Hearing this, Reimu asked her, "You're planning to use Royal Flare, right?" The magician nodded in response. "Then we'll have to move to a safer distance. I'll also set up a barrier for safety."

"Do it, then!" Patchouli said as she raised her arms into the air to begin forming a ball of light that gradually grew in size. Reimu shouted for the others to get away from Patchouli, and when they moved a bit of a distance behind the latter and gathered together, the shrine maiden quickly formed a box-shaped barrier around them and herself.

From inside the barrier, they watched as the tyrannosaurus closed in on Patchouli, and the ball of energy above the latter had already grown to a relatively large size. "Will Patchouli be all right?" asked Kosuzu, worried.

"You better not look down on that move," Marisa told her. "The last thing you want to experience is having a sun explode right in your face-ze!"

The dinosaur roared and then charged at Patchouli, but when he was only a few centimeters in front of the ball of light, it exploded and filled the whole place with bright, burning light. "Sun Sign: Royal Flare!" Patchouli shouted.

BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANG!

The intensity of the blast caused the tyrannosaurus to roar out loudly in pain and also make him move back. The girls and Unzan had to close their eyes in order not to get blinded by the brightness. "In… Incredible!" Keine said awe.

As the light continued to burn him, the tyrannosaurus kept on taking steps back until he fell off the cliff.

CRAAAAAAAAAAAASH!

The powerful attack finally came to an end, and Patchouli fell on her knees and hands while breathing heavily. Reimu made the barrier disappear, and then the group quickly ran to Patchouli. "Are you all right?" Marisa asked the magician as she helped her up.

"I'm fine…" Patchouli replied. "I'm not sure if I managed to defeat him, but in the very least, it did something to him… I think we better get out of here before he comes back… It's too risky to check if he is still capable of getting back up…"

"Patchouli is right," Eirin said with a nod, and then she looked at a strip of land that led into an opening at the wall. "That entrance over there is too small for the tyrannosaurus to go through, so let's head in there fast!"

Agreeing with those two, the group quickly ran across the strip of land not too far behind themselves and went into the entrance. Shortly after they went into it, the tyrannosaurus stood back up at the bottom of the cliff and shook his head to fully return to his sense. He looked at the top of the cliff and growled in anger while thinking about the people who managed to best him… for now…

* * *

The group made their way through the cavern, and after several minutes, they finally decided to stop to take a rest. Patchouli's asthma, which was triggered by being too nervous earlier and putting too much power into using Royal Flare, was getting worse.

After placing her back against a rock, Eirin looked into her basket to find medicine for treating asthma and a bottle of water. "I'm sorry that my health is being a burden to you…" Patchouli weakly said.

"It's all right," Eirin told her. "If your health is naturally poor, then there's no helping it. The fact that you managed to buy us time to escape that tyrannosaurus is a huge help already! I'm always around here to treat you when needed!" She found the things she were looking for and handed them over to the magician. "Here, take this pill. It'll bring you back to top condition in a few seconds!"

Reimu looked back at the path they were previously traveling on and said, "Let's hope that's the last time we run into that tyrannosaurus… No way do I want to run into him again… Ever!"

"As strange as it may be for me to say this, I agree…" Yuugi said with a nod. "I have yet to encounter an opponent that I cannot defeat… I know you managed to defeat me before… What I mean is an opponent that is highly resistant and even immune to my attacks… An opponent that doesn't become fatigued or get wounded, no matter how hard you attack it… This is my first time encountering one like that…"

"I'm with you in this one…" Marisa said. "Let's hope the path he takes won't end up leading him to us… By the way, how much longer do we have to keep going up before we reach the top?"

Keine looked at the ceiling and said, "If my estimation is correct, the top shouldn't be very far now. I think we should've drawn the map we saw back then for keeping track of where we are…"

Reimu looked up and said, "Let's just keep on moving. I'm sure we'll reach the top eventually, and speaking of which, I see a staircase over there. The more often we get to go up, the better. If Patchouli is feeling better, then let's keep on moving."

"I'm better now," Patchouli said as she stood back up.

"I'm also done removing poisonous substances from Unzan's body," Eirin said.

"Well, that was fast," Reimu said. "Guess we can thank Eirin for that. Anyway, let's go."

So the group headed for the staircase in the distance.

* * *

The girls spent the rest of the day traveling through the cave, climbing any staircases or flying up any cliffs they came across. They also encountered dangerous creatures that attacked them, such as giant spiders, mole-like monsters, giant worms with mouths filled with rows of sharp teeth, larger-than-usual bats, and even carnivorous plants. However, none of them were a match for the girls and Unzan. They managed to take down every creature that attacked them with little effort.

After about an hour of traveling through the cave, they came to a room that had a podium close to the center of the room, and there were torches on the walls at the sides, but they were unlit. There was a skeleton lying on the podium by its chest, and the sight of the former made the three fairies cower behind Yuugi. Reimu and Eirin walked up to the skeleton to inspect, and Eirin touched it.

"I take that a doctor like you should be able to tell how this person died, right?" Reimu said to her.

"Not all the time," Eirin said. "Now that he's nothing but skeleton, it's harder to tell how he died, unless there are wounds on the bones. However, I can at least tell that this person died several decades ago."

"Would this skeleton belong to one of those people who are trying to escape this world…?" Marisa asked. "Did he… fail…?"

"Doubtful," Patchouli told her. "The dates in these entries show that they came here not more than ten years ago. It's also likely that they accessed the pyramid from the normal entrance and not the bottom, so this skeleton cannot belong to any of those people."

Eirin and Reimu carried the skeleton to the side and then looked at the podium, which had a 10 x 10 grid on it. "Seems to be a puzzle of some kind," Eirin said. "Something tells me that you have a limited amount of time to solve it, and if you fail, you will die."

"That explains the skeleton, doesn't it?" Reimu said. "Let's hope this puzzle is easy…"

The others came forward to look at the podium and wondered what they had to do to it. Marisa pressed one of the tiles, and when she did, a symbol resembling the sun lit up on it. It was also at this moment that they heard hissing sounds coming from all over the place, and when they looked around, they saw gas slowly seeping out of the walls. "Uh oh… Don't tell me those are poison gas…" said Ichirin, worried.

"So this guy got poisoned to death…?" Yuugi asked.

Reimu looked at the podium and said, "Stop talking and start solving this puzzle! We need to find out how to solve this at once!" Out of hesitation, she pressed another one of the tiles, and the symbol of a sun also appeared on it. After that, both the tiles containing the sun symbols glowed and remained that way.

"What happened…?" Luna Child asked.

"I got it! It's a picture-matching puzzle!" Keine said. "We have to find matching pictures hidden in each of the tiles!"

"Really? Then that's child's play! With so many of us, we should be able to solve this in a jiffy!" Marisa said. She quickly pressed two tiles, and the symbols that appeared on those tiles were an eye and a hand. "Darn it… Didn't get that one…" Due to the symbols not matching, they both disappeared, and then all the tiles glowed. When they stopped glowing, the sun symbols had switched locations. "Hey, what happened…?"

"Looks like making mistakes will cause the tiles to be rearranged," Patchouli said. "That way, it's much harder for you to accomplish this puzzle."

"You gotta be kidding me…" Reimu said in frustration. "Whoever made this puzzle and also set up the trap wants the people solving this to die, doesn't he?!"

Fearing that the poison gas would eventually get them, the girls started to panic and press the tiles like crazy to find matching pairs, even though Keine told them to calm down and analyze things carefully before pressing any of the tiles. They made mistakes most of the time, so the tiles kept on getting rearranged, but at times, they were lucky enough to find matching pairs. They even managed to match four pairs in a row.

More and more gas seeped into the room, so everyone held breathes while continuing to match the pictures. Thanks to having many people playing at once, several pairs were found quite fast, and eventually, all the pictures were matched.

Immediately, the wall in front of them slid open sideways, so everyone quickly rushed into the next room, not caring what was inside, as they were in a hurry to escape the gas. Behind the wall was a door, which they quickly went through and then closed behind themselves. With that, they were safe from the gas. "Phew… That was close…" Ichirin said. "I thought we were goners…"

"At least I still have lots of antidotes…" Eirin said. "I think we should take them. Even breathing in a little bit may cause harm…"

"So… what's next?" Reimu wondered as she looked up ahead, and she noticed a ladder. Curious, she went over to the ladder and looked up, only to see that it led to the ceiling. Thinking that there would be a door up there, the shrine maiden climbed up the ladder and then felt the ceiling, but she wasn't able to find a hinge nor could she tell if it was a door.

"How about you let me do it?" Yuugi asked her. The shrine maiden nodded and then flew away to let the oni climb up to where she was. Yuugi pushed against the ceiling and managed to move a part of it upward with ease.

"So there really is door!" Reimu said.

Yuugi climbed out of the opening on the ceiling and to the top. She looked around and found herself in a place that resembled a place of worship for the religious. "This place… Can this be the inside of the pyramid…?" she wondered. Reimu called out to her from below, asking her what was up there, and she told them all to come up.

Everyone came up one by one, and when all of them were finally at the top, they looked around as well. "What is this place…?" Star Sapphire asked.

"Judging by the appearance and design," Patchouli said, "it's likely that we are inside the pyramid."

"So we've finally reached the top?" Marisa asked.

Sunny Milk turned around and saw light coming from the far end of the place. "I think we are, as I have every reason to believe that it is sunlight pouring in from that door over there."

Everyone headed over to the light, and when they looked out the door, they saw the chasm in front of the pyramid and the remaining part of the strip of land leading to the other side. "So it is the pyramid after all…" Keine said. "We made it! We made it to the top!"

"All right!" Marisa said while punching the air. "We finally did it!"

"Guess our hard work finally paid off, and I'm glad!" Reimu said with a smile. "Let's hope the journey to the top of the pyramid is an easy one as well."

Everyone turned back into the pyramid and headed over to the room they first appeared in. There, Patchouli took note of the writings seen on the wall behind an altar on top of a staircase. There were also pictures above the writings. It was a picture of a pyramid and the piece of land it was built on top of, and next to the pyramid and the piece of land was a man with an arrow pointing at him from below, and then a second arrow was pointing from above his head to the top. There was a picture of a star next to the man, not to mention a second one above him, next to the top of the pyramid.

"Any idea what it's talking about?" Eirin asked her.

"I can't say that I know the details…" Patchouli said. "Would be nice if I understand the language used… Judging from the picture…"

"If you get to the pyramid from below, you're a star, but you'll also be a star if you get to the top of it?" Sunny Milk said. "Just saying, so don't mind me…"

Patchouli and Eirin looked at her for several seconds in silence, and then the former said, "I think you may be up to something… Stars usually represent fame, greatness, and awards, so this picture is likely saying that if you can get to the pyramid from below, you will become famous."

"I see… That actually makes sense!" Eirin said. "So if you can make it to the top of the pyramid, you'll become famous as well?"

"That may be the case," Patchouli said with a nod.

"Wow! I didn't expect to get that right!" Sunny Milk said. "Am I getting smarter or what?"

"Guess going through danger makes one smarter," Luna Child said.

"But if getting to the top will make you famous, it also likely means that it won't be an easy trip to the top," Patchouli added. "That would mean the pyramid is rigged with traps and such…"

"Let's hope that's not the case…" Reimu said. "We've basically been through hell just now… No way do I want to go through another hell…"

Suddenly, Star Sapphire had a reaction on her face, and then she looked around nervously. Seeing this, Sunny Milk asked her if something was close by, and she replied that they were surrounded. Instantly, growling could be heard coming from all over the place, so everyone gathered together and got into defensive stances. Humanoid lizards eventually came out from the shadows and their hiding places, growling at them menacingly and in stances that implied they were going to attack them.

"It's these guys again…" Marisa said.

"At least it's not that tyrannosaurus…" Reimu said.

* * *

TO BE CONTINUED

I like this chapter better. It's more detailed and slightly more action-packed. I hope you enjoyed it as well!

God bless you all!

**Trivia:  
**1. This chapter's title is inspired by the Lord of the Ring prequel trilogy's third installment's subtitle, There and Back Again. Speaking of which, do you think trilogies are becoming way too overused? I'm getting tired of this concept… I did a trilogy for my SSB series back then, too, but now, I'd rather think of that as a tetralogy, as there is another story preceding it that started everything.


	7. Homeward Tests

**Not-So-Pointless-and-Random Rambling: **Touhou 14 is likely to be announced and released this year! I can't wait for ZUN to officially announce this new game he said he's working on since last year! No, it's not Hopeless Masquerade. It's Tasofro's job to make announcements related to that game.

**Chapter 7  
Homeward Tests**

* * *

Humanoid lizards were all around the inhabitants of Gensokyo, growling at them and ready to make their moves. The latter was ready to make their moves as well. Having come all this way, they were not going to fall to the hands of beasts found in this foreign world. They were willing to give all they had to get out of this place alive and return to their own world.

One of the lizards let out a cry before running at them, but he was instantly punched back by Unzan. Immediately, all the lizards cried loudly as they ran toward them to attack as a group. "C'mon! Let's show them what we've got!" Reimu loudly said.

"Got it!" most of the others said.

Marisa ran forward and sent some lizards flying with a smack of her magically-enhanced broom. Yuugi gave a lizard a punch that created shockwave that sent the ones near it flying away as well.

Eirin threw a vial against the floor to create a burst of pink smoke that blinded some incoming lizards, and it made them cough as well. While they were trying to regain their vision, the doctor ran behind them and shot them down one after another with her arrows. Keine pulled back her body when a lizard swung his claw at her, and then she caught the lizard by the head before headbutting its forehead really hard to knock it out.

With Unzan behind her and dealing with lizards by boxing them away, Ichirin dodged a claw strike of a lizard and then knocked it away with a right hook. When another one jumped at her, she gave it an uppercut to the abdomen before its claws reached her. When more than one lizard ran at Unzan at once, the nyuudou caught of all them with his hands, and then, lifting them his over head, flung them across the room and into the wall.

CRAAAAASH!

"Flash of Spring!" Patchouli shouted as she released a burst of pressurized air from her palm to blow away some lizards.

Three lizards jumped at the three fairies from different directions, but the latter quickly flew straight up and caused them to crash into each other. The fairies then rained down projectiles on them.

"Jeweled Sign: Concealed Orbs of Light!" Reimu shouted as she held up a spell card that created and fired yin-yang orbs into the air. The latter fell onto some lizards and flattened them before bouncing forward to flatten some more. While Reimu was fighting them, Kosuzu was hiding behind her for protection.

The girls and Unzan continued to hold their own against the humanoid lizards, and they were doing a good job at it. Despite having the number advantage, the lizards were completely unmatched for them, and their number dwindled quickly.

In the midst of shooting the lizards, Eirin suddenly heard a roar and the sound of continuous stomping. She turned to the side and saw a very muscular and larger than usual humanoid lizard running in her direction, knocking aside lizards that were standing in his way. The doctor quickly leaped to the side to avoid getting run over by the lizard and then pointed an arrow at his back. The lizard turned around to look at her, and then she let go of the bowstring. To her surprise, the lizard caught the arrow as it sped toward him, and then he let out a roar before jumping at her with the arrow raised over his head.

Eirin quickly jumped back to avoid getting hit by her own arrow when the lizard plunged it into the part of the floor she was originally standing on. She quickly readied another arrow, but before she could aim properly, the lizard caught her by the neck and then spun in a circle before flinging her against the wall.

CRASH!

"Ow…" the Lunarian doctor growled. She looked up and saw that humanoid lizard running at her, ready to smash her with his fist. That never happened, as Yuugi ran in front of him and stopped him with her own fist.

"You all right?" Yuugi asked Eirin, who gave a positive response. "Just leave this guy to me! He looks like he can give me a challenge!" The oni then grabbed the lizard's hand and flung him to the side, but he quickly stood back up after crashing onto the floor. "A tough one here, eh? I like it! Bring it on!"

The muscular lizard roared at her before running her and swung his fist, but she easily dodged it by stepping aside. He continued to throw punches at the oni, but each of the fist swings were dodged by her with ease. "Is this the best you can do?" Yuugi said in the midst of avoiding the punches. "My friend, who is shorter than you, can land more hits against me than you!"

Eventually, Yuugi stopped dodging to grab the lizard's fist, and then she flung him backward through the air. He crashed into some of the other smaller humanoid lizards and slid on the floor a bit before coming to a stop, and then he got back up and glared angrily at the oni, who was running at him. The oni threw a punch at him that sent him flying backward and into a wall.

CRAAAAAAAAAAAASH!

With that, the humanoid lizard fell unconscious, and Yuugi dusted her hands while saying, "Guess I overestimated you… You ended up disappointing me in the end."

"Treasure Sign: Yin-Yang Orb!" Reimu shouted as she used a spell card to release a circular, orange blast that blasted away three lizards. After that, she looked around to see that there were still a few more, but they were standing far away and didn't look like they were going to attack.

Seeing that most of their comrades, including their champion, the muscular one, were all defeated, the remaining lizards started to become afraid. Thinking that they had no chance of victory, they turned and slipped back into the shadows. "Looks like they have enough," Ichirin said as she lowered her fists.

"All right! We did!" Sunny Milk said while punching the air.

"Is everyone all right?" Eirin asked as she looked at everyone.

"Everyone seems to be fine," Marisa said. "Just a few scratches here and there, maybe… Those lizards were really easy to deal with! Despite there being a lot of them, we still managed to win with ease!"

"Yeah, even that big one was a big pushover!" Yuugi said. "Those muscles were just for look after all."

With the battle over, the girls decided that they should make their way to the top of the pyramid. Reimu looked at the passage up ahead and next to the wall and said, "I take that the passage over there is the way to the top, right? I'm not in the mood for staying here another night, so let's get going."

Keine nodded. "I agree; we better get back to our world fast."

"Hopefully, we won't encounter any dangerous creatures in this place…" Marisa said. "At least not that tyrannosaurus…"

So they all went into the passage.

* * *

After a few minutes of walking, they came across a pit, and when they looked down it, they saw spikes made of wood, and there were some skeletons down there as well. They also noticed ropes hanging down from the ceiling over the pit. "So you're supposed to swing across the place using those ropes?" Reimu wondered. "I take that the people down there weren't so lucky with the swinging. Luckily for us…" Then she floated over the pit. "We don't have to bind ourselves to the rules here."

"Being able to fly is great-ze!" said Marisa, carrying with her Kosuzu. Using his method, everyone managed to get to the other said with no effort, and then they continued on their way.

After a bit of walking again and then making a turn, they came to a door with a scrambled picture close to the bottom of it. "Now what?" Reimu asked.

"If this wall needs some busting, then let me do it!" said Yuugi, punching her palm.

"Wait," Patchouli said as she went up to the wall to observe the picture. "This appears to be a picture puzzle, a kind common for children to play with." After looking at the picture for a few minutes, she started unscrambling it, and it took her less than a minute to make out a picture of what appeared to be a fully armed native warrior. With the picture unscrambled, the door slid up. "There! Some things can be solved without using force."

"It's more fun using that for me, though…" Yuugi commented, and then everyone continued onward.

They continued down the corridor again and made another turn. Eventually, they came upon a statue of a warrior wielding a spear standing in front of a wall. Some inspected the statue, while some looked at the wall. "Um… Dead end…?" Marisa asked. "We didn't take the wrong turn, did we…?"

"But this is the only path… There has to be a way forward," Reimu said.

Keine inspected the statue from head to toe and said, "I believe this statue holds the secret to the way forward. Perhaps there's a switch hidden somewhere on it?" She felt around its head to see if there was something that could be pressed. After touching the forehead, the statue's eyes glowed, and the whole thing shook, surprising everyone. The ones standing in front of it backed off, while the ones behind it backed up against the wall. "What… What did you do?" Kosuzu asked Keine.

"I simply touched its head…" Keine replied.

When the statue stopped shaking, it started moving like it was a living being. The statue spun its spear around itself to show off its skills before pointing it at them. "A moving statue… Interesting…" Eirin said. "I take that this is the same concept as golems in Jewish folklore or something similar…"

The statue moved in the direction of the ones in front of it with its spear pointing at them, and Yuugi said, "So we're supposed to defeat this guy if we want to open the way forward?"

Patchouli noticed a target on the statue's abdomen and pointed it out to the others. "I think we're supposed to hit that spot," she said.

Before anyone else could respond, the statue ran forward to attack with its spear, but Yuugi got it in front of it and knocked its spear out of its hand with a single swing of her arm before punching the bullseye so hard that the statue was broken in half.

SMAAAAAAAAAAAAAASH!

Some of the statue's pieces fell onto Yuugi's feet, and the oni looked at them while saying, "If this is supposed to be one of the trials for proving if you are worthy enough to get to the top, then the standard of the people here are… to say… very low…"

"More like your fighting skills and strength are way beyond league of everyone else…" Ichirin told her. "These are made for normal humans in mind, not oni like you…"

Suddenly, the wall next to Marisa and Reimu slid open, revealing a room behind it. "Well! What do you know! The way forward just appeared before our eyes-ze!" said Marisa, surprised.

"Guess destroying that statue is the answer to opening the way forward after all," Reimu said. "Though I think you were supposed to touch or push the target and not destroy the whole thing…"

With the way forward revealed, everyone headed into the next room. In there, they were greeted with an incredibly spacious room with a podium at the center of it. They went up to the podium and saw three circles on it and a handprint above the one in the center. "What's this? Another puzzle?" Reimu wondered,

Kosuzu noticed a book on the floor, so she picked it up and flipped through it. "It's written in Japanese in here! Could it belong to the people who were trying to escape this world?"

Patchouli looked at the notebook and said, "Seems so… The handwriting is the same as the ones in the other notebook. What does it say here?" When Kosuzu came across pages that had characters that weren't in Japanese, Patchouli recognized them at once. "These characters… They're the language used in this world!"

"You're right!" Kosuzu said. Everyone gathered around those two as Kosuzu flipped through the pages to find out more. "It seems that he was trying to learn the language of the people here. He seems to be able to find out what they actually mean, too!"

"Is this going to be of help to us?" Yuugi asked.

"I'm sure it will be of help," Keine said. "The fact that he wrote it down here must mean that understanding the language of this world is important in opening the way forward."

"Um… If you all would mind giving Patchouli and I some space…" Kosuzu said to the others. "We'd like to take some time to study this language… We can't concentrate with everyone breathing onto us…"

"If you say so…" Reimu said, and then everyone backed off.

Kosuzu and Patchouli sat down and studied the notebook carefully, while the others walked around the place to see if there was anything noteworthy. Marisa looked up and said, "Look at the top… It goes really high up…"

Reimu looked up and said, "Guess this pyramid is hollow… What's the point of a design like this anyway?"

"I'm wondering…" Marisa said. "If there is a door at the top, then maybe we can just fly up there! I think that for those who cannot fly, they're supposed to solve the puzzle in this room in order to open the way forward. There's no way this room can have nothing in it. I suspect that podium has something to do with this…"

"Perhaps, but let's wait for Kosuzu and Patchouli to learn about the language here first," Reimu told her.

Kosuzu and Patchouli continued to teach themselves the language, and Keine eventually went to join them to study the language, too.

Several minutes passed, and then the three of them stood up. This grabbed the attention of everyone else, so they went up to them. "The person who wrote this left behind this on purpose for anyone who came here," Kosuzu said, and then she turned to the podium. "According to him, this podium is for answering a series of quiz questions related to this world. We must answer several questions correctly if you want to open the way forward."

"He also took his time to study the language here," Patchouli added. "He got the alphabets, basic grammars, and some common terms written down and translated."

"So… a quiz, eh?" Marisa asked. "I hope it's not too hard…"

"Considering that we know nothing about this world, it may be hard for us…" Keine said. "However, if those people can get pass here, then perhaps it's not as hard as we think."

"Or maybe he was just lucky…" Star Sapphire said.

"Anyway…" Kosuzu said as she looked at the handprint on the podium, "to start the quiz, you'll have to put your hand here…" She placed her hand onto the handprint, and then the circles below it and the handprint itself glowed with green light.

Suddenly, large characters glowing in green light appeared on the wall in front of the podium. "Whoa…!" Luna Child cried in awe.

Everyone looked at the characters on the wall, and then Reimu said, "Seeing how there is a question mark at the end of the long string of characters at the top, I take that it is the question, right?"

"It is," Patchouli said. "The ones below it appear to be answer choices, and the numbers next to them are also on the circles… I take you have to choose your answer by pressing the circle with the correct number…"

"It's a multiple choice quiz," Keine said. "I give my students quizzes and tests like this as well."

"So… what does it say up there?" Marisa asked.

Kosuzu, Patchouli, and Keine studied the question and the answer choices carefully, and they occasionally referred to the notebook for references. "Let's see… What is the name… of the chief…?" said Kosuzu, reading the question out loud. "Choice one: Chief Bobo, choice two: Chief Hookawan, and choice three: Chief Chakeideajy…"

"What kind of names are those…?" Ichirin commented.

"Did the notebook mention anything about the chief's name?" Eirin asked Kosuzu, Patchouli, and Keine.

"No…" Keine said while shaking her head. "It didn't list down any of the answers…"

"Geez… So much for trying to be helpful… But I guess letting us understand what is written up on the wall is good enough, I guess…" Marisa said.

"Wait a minute…" Yuugi said as she placed her hand underneath her chin. "I think I may know something… While we were exploring the ruined village, I went into a large building, and I vaguely remember seeing this symbol on a sign above the door… That symbol resembles the first one of the second choice…"

"You sure about this?" Patchouli asked her.

"Dunno…" the oni said with a shrug. "However, that building seems to be the largest of all the ones in the village, and it makes sense for the chief to live in the largest building, so chances are likely that the sign above the door was actually writing the chief's name…"

"Well, if Yuugi says so, then let's try the second choice…" Kosuzu said. "Let's hope there are no consequences for getting the wrong answer…" Then she placed her hands on the circle in the middle, hoping that it was the correct answer and that nothing bad would happen if it happened to the wrong one. After placing her hand onto the circle, a "ding" was heard echoing throughout the place, and then the characters on the wall changed. "Did… Did I get the answer correct…?"

"Seems so," Patchouli said.

"Wow! So it is the correct answer!" Yuugi said.

"Way to go, Yuugi!" Sunny Milk said to her.

"Education isn't something I'm good at, so I'm glad that I managed to help figure out the answer!" the oni happily said.

"Okay, so what's the next question?" Reimu asked.

The three educational ones read the question and the answer choices. "Let's see… What is the name… of the city…?" Kosuzu said. "Choice one: El Tomado, choice two: Fanfikusion Dotnet, and choice three: Shambhala…"

"Shambhala? Well, I'd be surprised!" Patchouli commented.

"You know that name?" Marisas asked her.

"Shambhalah is a mythical kingdom believed to exist somewhere in Asia, but nobody has been able to prove its existence yet," Patchouli explained. "It is said to be a celestial realm for Buddhists."

"Ooooh… Sounds interesting!" the witch commented. "I bet Byakuren would be interested in it! On the second thought, chances are likely that she knows about that place more than us and even went there before…"

"If it's a place from the outside world, then how come the people here know about it?" Ichirin asked. "Does it mean this place is actually somewhere in the outside world? By the way, I've heard about that place before, and I don't think Mistress Hijiri went there before. She never even left Japan…"

"Maybe the legend of Shambhala managed to reach all the way here," Keine said. "It's also likely that they happen to have a place here called by that name. Anyway, I'm thinking the city that the question mentioned refers to the ruined village we came across. So it's actually a city and not a village…"

"So… you think Shambhala is the answer?" Reimu asked.

"This place looks nothing like a celestial realm, so I doubt it…" Kosuzu said. "The second one sounds too bizarre to be a city's name, so let's try the first one…" She placed her hand on the leftmost circle and hoped for the best, and to her relief, she got the right answer again. "Phew… Got it!"

"Wow! We sure are lucky to get two questions right in a row!" Marisa commented. "Looks like this quiz is easier than we thought!"

"I wouldn't be so sure if I were you," Keine said. "Luck won't last forever…"

The next question showed up. "Um… This one may be hard…" said Kosuzu after reading it. "It's asking something history-related…"

"History-related? I guess we're going to be stuck with this one, considering that we know nothing about this world's history…" Reimu said.

"It's asking what happened during a certain era of this world," Patchouli said. "The first answer is the assassination of someone, the second one has to do with marriage, and the third is about the birth of a person's son…"

"I think it might be the first one," Keine said. "Assassination is no big deal, so let's try that one."

"You sure? Okay, let's try that answer…" Kosuzu said as she put her hand on the leftmost circle, but that circle glowed with red light and burned her, causing her to pull back her hand in an instant. "YEOW!"

"You all right?!" Keine asked her in shock.

"Guess it was the wrong answer…" said Patchouli, looking at Kosuzu and then at the podium. "So this is what happens if you get the wrong answer…"

Eirin took a look at Kosuzu's hand and said, "It's just a minor burn, nothing big. A bit of ointment for curing burns will do."

Patchouli looked at the screen and saw that the question had changed. "It seems that even if you get it wrong, the question will still change…"

"Wait, I have an idea!" Marisa said. "We can get around the burned hand issue by pressing those circles using something else!"

"That's a great idea!" Sunny Milk said.

"That sounds like a good way," Patchouli said without turning her head to the witch. "Let's see… The next question is asking how long… something… Not sure about that particular word… The choices are ten years, twenty years, and twenty-five years."

"If whatever was being built took all those years to finish, then it must be a large architecture," Reimu said. "The only large architecture I can think of here is this very pyramid. It probably took twenty-five years to be built."

"Then let's try the third choice-ze!" Marisa said as she used the back end of her broom to touch the rightmost circle, but nothing happened. She touched it again using the same thing, but nothing happened like earlier. "Hey, why can't I press it? Is this broken?" Then she pressed it with her hand, only to get the wrong answer and burn herself. "YEOW!"

"Seems that you can only press them with your hand," Patchouli said.

When the next question showed up, Eirin took out a piece of cloth and suggested that they press the circles using it. She answered the next question, which asked for the name of the tallest kind of tree found in this world, but was unable to get the circle she was touching to respond. They came to the conclusion that they can only make the circles respond with their own hands and nothing else. Taking the risk, Eirin went ahead and press that same circle, and she was relieved that she got the right answer.

The group continued to answer more questions, sometime getting them right and sometime wrong. After answering several questions, nothing appeared on the wall anymore. "Where's the next question?" Reimu asked.

"Is this thing broken?" Marisa asked. "Or did we answer all the questions?"

Suddenly, a large green ring appeared on the wall, and a loud "ding" was heard as well. "It would appear that we passed," Patchouli said.

"Really? That's great!" Star Sapphire said in excitement.

"Well, that's good," Reimu said. "Guess all those hand burnings are worth it in the end."

"Yeah…" Keine said while applying the burnt ointment Eirin gave her onto her palm.

All of a sudden, the floor shook once, and then it dropped straight down, taking everyone but Unzan along with it. "Why is the floor falling?!" Ichirin said in shock.

"I thought we passed the quiz?!" Marisa said.

After several seconds, the floor came to a sudden stop, and then the girls got up to catch their breaths. Unzan also flew down to rejoin Ichirin. "Phew… That… That was… scary…" Luna Child said. "What… What happened…?"

"We better treat her first…" said Ichirin, looking at Patchouli, whose asthma kicked up again. Eirin wasted no time in giving her medical treatment to make her feel better.

As Patchouli was starting to feel better, everyone heard various sounds coming from above. They looked up and saw several platforms coming out of the walls, not to mention bridges, ladders, staircases, giant bladed pendulums, and more. "What… What is happening…?" Keine wondered.

Ichirin looked around and said, "The wall… It's no longer the same as before…" Everyone looked around and saw that it was indeed no longer the blocks consisting of the room they were in, but rocky walls similar to that of a cave's.

"Did we actually go underneath the pyramid or what…?" Marisa said. "I'm confused… I thought we were supposed to go upward if we complete those quizzes, not down…"

"Did the notebook say anything about this?" Reimu asked Kosuzu.

The storeowner shook her head. "No… I didn't see anything in the notebook regarding this… I have no idea what is happening, too…"

"From the look of it," Eirin said while looking at the top, "it would appear that this is another test that we have to go through if we want to get to the top. It seems to be an obstacle course…" Then she looked to the side. "Those blocks arranged in the form of a staircase over should be the part where you start your way climbing to the top."

"An obstacle course, eh?" Yuugi said while looking up. "Looks fun! I think I'm going to choose not to fly and climb and jump my way to the top instead!"

"Yeah, this obstacle course is going to be a piece of cake for anyone who can fly," Reimu said. "For those who can't, it looks very dangerous… Imagine missing a step and falling all the way back down… You probably won't survive the fall… Anyway, since we're in a hurry to get out of here, let's just fly to the top and get this over with as soon as possible. No way am I going to participate in this obstacle course for fun!"

"Awwwwww… I was looking forward to it…" Yuugi said in disappointment.

Suddenly, Star Sapphire had a reaction on her face, and then she turned to look at the side, which caused everyone to do the same. "What is it? Is something coming…?" Star Sapphire asked in fear, and the fairy in blue nodded.

Suddenly, the wall burst open as the tyrannosaurus broke through it, much to the horror of everyone. The dinosaur let out an ear-shattering roar that pushed everyone back a few steps.

"NOT HIM AGAIN!" Marisa cried.

* * *

TO BE CONTINUED

A lot of this chapter was scrapped in order to set up the "obstacle course" at the end. It was very hard to come up with things, but God gave me the inspiration for making things work out in the end. I hope you enjoyed this chapter!

God bless you all!

**Trivia:  
**1. Chakeideajy is a slurred version of the catchphrase "take it easy", spoken by koyukkuris.

2. Fanfikusion Dotnet is named after this site.

3. It goes without saying that El Tomado is named after the mythical city of gold El Dorado. I thought of calling it El Tomato at first. Haha…


	8. Final Ascension

**SBS Time:  
Guest: **Is it possible that you got the idea of the poison from the Deviljho?  
**Game2002:** First, I already know what the Deviljho is already. Anyway, the Deviljho wasn't in my mind when I gave the tyrannosaurus the ability to breathe poison. I originally intended for the poison to come out from openings found at the top of mountains, and the source of it comes from mushrooms or something underground. In the end, I decided to make the tyrannosaurus responsible for the poison that is covering the sky of this world.

I recently made myself a Twitter account. I plan to post chapter statuses and info on future stories there, so please follow me if you want to know about those things! The link is in my profile, so please go there to find it.

**Chapter 8  
Final Ascension**

* * *

The group from Gensokyo could not believe that they were looking at the dreaded tyrannosaurus that they were unable to overcome for the third time. It was the last thing they wanted to come across on their way home…

They all stared in silence at the dinosaur as the he glared at them and growled slowly, and then Reimu suddenly shouted, "RUN!" With that, she took off into the air, shortly followed by the others.

**BGM: Final Battle (Super Mario 3D Land)**

Seeing that his preys were escaping, the tyrannosaurus turned to look at the blocks arranged in the formation of a staircase and then ran to it. The dinosaur got onto a large strip of land at the top of the blocks and greeted the girls with a roar that caused them to be pushed back through the air. "He's coming after us using the things around here!" Marisa said.

"Just keep moving! Don't stop!" Reimu loudly said, and then they quickly continued flying upward.

The tyrannosaurus wouldn't let them get away so easily. He jumped onto a nearby platform used for getting to a higher place to do exactly just that. He reached the same level as them again and roared into their faces, this time breathing poison as well. Seeing the poison heading for them, they all held their breaths with their hands covering their noses and mouths while continuing for the top.

Unfortunately for Luna Child, a block that was moving along the wall happened to come above her while she was flying, and after banging her head against it, the fairy was knocked unconscious and fell down. Her two companions heard her cry when she hit her head, and then looked down with a horrified face. "LUNA CHILD!"

The tyrannosaurus opened his mouth to catch the falling fairy in it, but quick as a flash, Unzan flew at her and swiped his hand at her, snatching her out of harm's way. The nyuudou quickly returned to the others, and they continued for the top as fast as they could.

The tyrannosaurus turned to the wall and jumped at it. Digging the claws of his feet into the wall and then pushing up, the dinosaur managed to launch himself high into the air, and he did the same thing again at the peak of his jump to go higher than the girls and Unzan. The dinosaur kicked off the wall at the height of his jump to push himself onto a strip of land, and then he looked down at the group and breathed poison.

"Watch out!" Reimu shouted, and then they quickly scattered in various directions to avoid coming in contact with the gas.

"I can't believe he managed to go higher than us!" Marisa said while looking at the dinosaur. "How can something big like him have such wall jumping skills?!"

A boulder came rolling out of the wall when the latter opened and traveled along the strip of land the dinosaur was on. The dinosaur stopped it with his foot when it was near and then kicked it off the edge to send it falling toward Keine, but she got out of the way. Another boulder rolled toward him, and he kicked it off the edge again. This time, Yuugi caught the boulder and then flung it back to the top, but the tyrannosaurus, with correct timing, kicked it into the wall and shattered it, sending pieces of it raining down. A large piece hit Keine in the head. Knocked unconscious, the were-hakutaku fell onto a platform not too far down below.

"Keine!" Reimu said in shock.

"I'll help her!" Yuugi said as she flew over to Keine. While on her way there, Reimu shouted for Yuugi to watch out for another boulder that was thrown at her. Yuugi turned around and looked up just in time to see it falling toward her, and she managed to destroy it with a single punch. "Tsk! He's having way too much with the boulder-throwing! I'll show him how you should throw a boulder after this!"

She carried Keine over her shoulder and then flew over to Unzan to let him carry her, and then she flew toward the tyrannosaurus, despite the others telling her not to fight him. The dinosaur kicked down another boulder at her, but she caught it, flew above him, and slammed it over his head hard. The dinosaur barely budged from the impact and then roared at her angrily.

Yuugi landed on the same strip of land as him, and when a boulder rolled at her from behind, she caught it and then flung it at the tyrannosaurus, and it shattered when it hit his body. The tyrannosaurus then charged forward, and Yuugi did the same. The former clashed his snout against the fist of the latter with a force so strong that a shockwave was created. Yuugi then flipped over the dinosaur and, after positioning herself right-side-up, slammed her elbow against the back of his neck. The dinosaur spun around to face her, but before he could do anything, Unzan slammed his fist into the back of his head.

When the tyrannosaurus turned around to face him, the nyuudou punched him rapidly over and over. When a boulder came rolling down the strip of land, Unzan quickly picked up and smashed it over the dinosaur's head. Yuugi then flew to the dinosaur's eye and punched it hard, causing him to cry in pain. While his mouth was open, Eirin fired an arrow infused with energy into his mouth, causing an explosion that made him walk back until he fell off the edge and onto a platform several feet down below.

CRAAAAAAAAAAAAASH!

The others flew up to the same level as the three. Keine had already returned to consciousness from getting hit in the head. "Good going!" Reimu said to Eirin, Yuugi, and Unzan. "This should buy us some time to escape, so let's go!"

The tyrannosaurus stood back up and watched in anger as the group made their escape. Not willing to give up just yet, the dinosaur used the same wall jumping technique to get onto the previous strip of land and then continued to give chase using nearby blocks and platforms.

During the midst of their flight, Eirin was shot in the back by some arrows, and the others were horrified at the sight of this. Badly injured and unable to stay airborne properly, the Lunarian doctor endured the pain and quickly made it onto a platform. Keine flew to her to ask her if she was all right. Before the doctor could answer, the tyrannosaurus jumped onto a block that was at the same level as them. "Oh no!" Keine gasped.

The tyrannosaurus used the blocks before his eyes as stepping stones to get to them, and when the arrows that were shooting across the air from the sides struck his leg, they bounced off him harmlessly. Reimu quickly came down in front of Keine and Eirin and slapped a paper amulet onto the floor to create a large wall.

Yuugi landed next to Eirin and said to her, "Don't worry; I'll get these out!" She pulled out the arrows one by one as fast as she could, and the pain of them being pulled out made Eirin cried in pain.

"Ow! You'll make the wounds worse if you pull them out that fast!" Eirin told her.

"We have to move fast, so it can't be helped!" Yuugi said as she placed her arm over her shoulders and then took flight with Keine.

Seeing that the three was gone, Reimu quickly rejoined the others. The tyrannosaurus broke through the wall like it was made a paper and then continued after them using the blocks up ahead.

The group was still on their way to the top when Marisa suddenly saw a bladed pendulum swinging at her. She quickly got out of the way, but her sudden movement caused Kosuzu to fall off the broom and onto a strip of land, right in the path of another pendulum. The storeowner screamed in horror at the sight of the blade swinging her, but Marisa quickly flew at her and snatched her out of harm's way in the nick of time, but a clump of straw was cut off by it from her broom. "Phew… That was close…" Marisa said. "Sorry about that just now…"

The tyrannosaurus got onto the strip of land that had the two pendulums and ran in the direction of Marisa and Kosuzu, ramming down the pendulums as he did. Marisa flew for the top before the tyrannosaurus got too close. The dinosaur jumped at the wall and kicked off it to try to catch Marisa with his mouth, but he missed and landed on the other side. Instead of crossing to the other side to use the blocks to get to the top, the dinosaur used his wall jumping technique to ascend at a high speed. Planting his feet against the wall after jumping up twice, he launched himself onto a block just in time to "greet" the girls just as they came to the same level.

"Argh! Why won't he give up?!" Reimu said in frustration. The dinosaur released a large amount of gas from his mouth, so they quickly scattered in various directions.

"I'm going to use Royal Flare again! Hope it can knock him to the bottom!" Patchouli said as she raised her arms into the air. The tyrannosaurus turned to her and pulled back his head before shooting a burst of purple gas at her. The gas blasted Patchouli backward several feet, and when she came to a stop, she felt her head spinning while coughing violently.

"He got her with poison!" Keine said.

Already having a poor health condition, the poison made Patchouli unable to remain in air, so she fell down. Reimu quickly flew over to her and caught her before she fell too far down. Due to carry another person, Reimu wasn't able to fly up at a fast speed, but when she saw the tyrannosaurus shooting a burst of poison at her, she was able to move aside fast enough.

The tyrannosaurus was going to shoot another burst of poison at them when suddenly Unzan forced his mouth shut with his hands. Seeing that the nyuudou was buying time for her to escape, Reimu flew up as fast as she could while carrying Patchouli. "Thanks a lot, Unzan!" she said to the nyuudou.

Reimu flew to Yuugi and passed the magician to her. "You got to train your muscles if you want to fly fast while carrying someone, you know," Yuugi said. "Anyway, we're close to the top! The others went on ahead already!"

The tyrannosaurus shook his head as he tried to get Unzan's hands off his mouth. Eventually, he did and then breathed poison into the nyuudou's face. Unzan punched him in the head once before quickly rejoining the others. The tyrannosaurus looked up and shot bursts of poison at them. The shots that didn't hit anyone kept on going until they hit the ceiling and filled the air.

All the others managed to get to the top already and were standing in front of a door. When Eirin saw the poison spreading out close to the ceiling, she said, "This is bad… If he keeps on breathing poison, this place will be filled with it soon…"

"I think that's exactly what he's planning to do…" Keine said while looking at the tyrannosaurus, which was shooting bursts of poison nonstop.

Reimu saw what the tyrannosaurus was doing and believed that it would be too dangerous if he kept on doing this, so she threw forth an amulet which transformed into a relatively large wall that blocked out the poison before continuing heading for the top. Unzan and Yuugi had already gone ahead of her.

Seeing that his attack was being blocked off by the wall, the tyrannosaur bent down and then performed an incredibly high jump. When he jumped, he pressed his feet against the block he was standing on so hard that it broke into pieces. The dinosaur smashed through the wall and quickly reached the same level of Reimu, much to her surprise. The dinosaur released a burst of poison that blasted her onto a platform with a door at the end of it.

The tyrannosaurus landed in front of her, but the part of the platform he landed on happened to be a button, and when he stepped on it, the door behind Reimu slowly slid down to reveal a spiraling staircase that led to where her friends were.

At the same time, both the tyrannosaurus and her heard the sound of crumbling coming from below, and when the former looked down, he saw the platforms, blocks, and strips of lands slowly retracing into the walls. Cracks started to appear on the platform they were standing on, too. "Oh no…" the shrine maiden said in her head as she looked at the cracks. Without thinking twice, she got up and ran up the staircase as fast as she could, and the dinosaur gave chase when he saw her run. The platform crumbled away shortly after he ran, and the staircase crumbled after the tyrannosaurus as he chased the shrine maiden.

From the top, the others could see what was happening. "Reimu! Run faster!" Marisa shouted at the shrine maiden. "You can do it!"

Reimu was feeling worse and worse as she ran up the staircase, as the poison was slowly wearing her out. "Must… make… it…!" she said in her head. "Must… not… fail…!"

"Wait! The dinosaur will surely get to the top at this rate!" Yuugi said.

"Then what suggestion do you have?" Ichirin asked her.

"I think we'll destroy the staircase from here ourselves. After that, someone will catch Reimu. That way, we have a higher chance of guaranteeing the dinosaur not getting up here!" the oni suggested.

"You sure that will work?" Marisa asked.

"We'll see!" Yuugi said, and then she punched the front of the staircase hard to make cracks appear on it. She then dug her fingers into the floor and told Unzan to get ready to catch Reimu. When the nyuudou nodded, the oni mustered all her strength to rip the staircase off the floor. Needless to say, Reimu and the tyrannosaurus were both thrown back into the air.

**BGM Ends**

"YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" Reimu screamed as she fell, and below her, the tyrannosaurus had his mouth open and was trying to catch the shrine maiden with it. The dinosaur tried to reach his head toward her and was close to catching her when Unzan's hand suddenly swung at Reimu and snatched her out of harm's way.

The tyrannosaurus roared in anger at failing to catch any of his preys. The roar continued as he fell all the way to the bottom, and the pieces of the staircase followed him.

Unzan flew back to the others and placed Reimu onto the floor, and everyone immediately gathered around her. "Are you all right, Reimu?" Marisa asked her.

"You people made it look like… you were trying to kill me… just now…" Reimu said while breathing heavily.

CRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAASH!

The loud sound and the violent shaking shocked everyone. They looked down and could make out the figure of the tyrannosaurus at the bottom, but they couldn't tell if he was still alive. "Hope this is the last time we see him…" Eirin said.

"Let's get out of here before he returns somehow!" Keine suggested.

Agreeing that the first thing they should do was to get out of here, everyone turned to the door and stood in front of it. A gemstone that was inserted into the wall above the door glowed with green light to signify that they passed the test, and then the door slid up. The moment it did, a large amount of purple gas rushed in, and they realized that they had completely forgotten about the poison out there. Holding their breaths with their hands over their mouths and hands, they rushed outside and looked around desperately for the altar Kosuzu claimed to have seen in the last page of the book.

Ichirin saw a staircase heading upward, and she pointed for everyone to head there. They quickly rushed up the staircase and saw an altar over there, and Kosuzu pointed at it while nodding rapidly to tell everyone that it was the one she saw. They ran up to the altar and looked at it to see a large piece of crystal shaped like the one seen on the cover of the book.

Kosuzu placed her hands onto the crystal and then told everyone to do the same. Everyone gathered around the altar and did as she said. They all pressed the crystal with their might, and then the latter gave off bright light that engulfed them all.

When the light died down, they were all gone.

* * *

TO BE CONTINUED

This chapter is one of the times when you have the idea in your head and know what to do, but lack both the motivation and the idea and creativity to pull it off in a good way. It was hard trying to describe certain things in this chapter to make it intense. Perhaps I could do better, but I hope you still enjoyed this chapter.

This chapter is actually inspired by the final battle of Super Mario 3D Land, as you can probably tell from the BGM and the way this "battle" is.


	9. Clear, Blue Sky

**Final Chapter  
Clear, Blue Sky**

* * *

"What was that just now?" wondered a girl with white and partly blue hair as she looked around the place, but she didn't see anything peculiar or anybody at all. "Strange… I was sure there was a bright light just now…"

Suddenly, a burst of light happened before her eyes, blinding her. When the light died down, Reimu and the others were seen standing at where it used to be, and a large amount of purple gas was accompanying them. Coughing nonstop, the group ran for the exit, telling that girl to get out of the building as well. The girl was confused, but when she saw the gas approaching, she quickly did the same.

Reimu and her group ran outside the building and then grasped for air, while the gas came out and rose into the sky. "Finally… Fresh… air…" Marisa said, but then she coughed nonstop and felt dizzy at the same time. "Ugh… I think… I already breathed in… the gas…"

"I think… we all did…" said Ichirin in between coughs.

Keine looked around while breathing heavily and said, "This… This is the Human Village… We… We made it… back…"

The sight of the girls looking so worn out and sickly attracted the attention of passersby, and they gathered around them and asked what happened. Eirin reached into her basket and took out antidotes to give to the others, including herself.

* * *

**BGM: The Earth Spirits' Homecoming (Touhou: Subterranean Animism)**

A bit of time had passed after what happened at the Human Village, and Reimu and Marisa were both walking along the path that led to the Hakurei Shrine. "Can't believe that despite being there for two days, not a minute has passed here…" Marisa said.

"Time there passes by differently," Reimu said. "It's a good thing, however, as our absence wouldn't require us to explain to others what happened to us."

"You're right," Marisa said with a nod. "Boy! What an adventure that was! I don't think I ever want to go there again, though…"

"Never in a million years for me…" Reimu said with a frustrated look on her face. "Anyway, I'm starving… Want to have a bite at my shrine?"

"Sure!" Marisa said with a nod. "Don't mind if I stay there for a night, too!"

"Give me a good reason for that…" the shrine maiden said to her.

* * *

Eirin was walking through the Bamboo Forest of the Lost, finding her way back to Eientei. "To think that I haven't been gone for more than a minute in this world…" she said. "The universe sure is a strange place… Different dimensions having their own times… I'm glad my absence didn't arouse any suspicions or concerns, though I wonder if I should tell the princess everything that happened…"

While she was on her way back, she encountered someone familiar standing not too far away. That person came running up to her and called out, "Master Eirin!"

"It's you, Reisen!" Eirin said to her. "What are you doing out here?"

"Nothing, just taking a walk," Reisen said to her. "Got the books you're looking for at the book rental store?"

"Something came up, so I didn't rent any books in the end," Eirin told her.

"What happened?" the lunar rabbit asked.

"Maybe I'll tell you all once we're back at Eientei," the doctor told her with a smile. "You won't believe what happened!"

"Okay…" Reisen said with a confused look. As they made their way back to Eientei, the lunar rabbit kept on wondering what happened to her superior.

* * *

The three fairies were flying down a forest path, talking to each other about all that happened to them. "I can't wait to tell the others about it!" Sunny Milk said. "I bet Cirno is going to be amazed at everything we've been through and praise us nonstop!"

"I'm not even sure if they're going to believe us…" Luna Child said.

"We can always bring the others to support what we said," Star Sapphire said.

"Right! From now on, nobody is going to look down on us!" Sunny Milk proudly said. "We've basically been through hell and back, and that's not something everyone can accomplish everyday!"

* * *

Ichirin and Unzan had arrived at the entrance of the Myouren Temple. The former looked into the entrance to see if there was anybody inside. "Have I really only been gone for less than a minute…?" she wondered. "I can't believe that time here barely passed while we were there for two days… What if it's really been two days here already? What will Mistress Hijiri and the others say? Are they going to believe my explanation?"

Just then, Nazrin stepped out from a room and spotted them both. "Oh, you're back," she said to them. "Did you get the books Mistress Hijiri wants?"

Ichirin looked at the books she was carrying and said, "Yeah, I got them."

"That's good," the mouse demon said. "Mistress Hijiri's in her room, so go ahead and give it to her."

"Okay," Ichirin said with a nod, and then she went inside and took off her shoes. As she headed in the direction of Byakuren's room, she turned to look at Nazrin, who wondered why she was doing so.

"What's wrong?" she asked.

"Um… Was I gone for too long?" Ichirin asked.

Nazrin became confused. "You've only been gone for about thirty minutes. That isn't long, is it? Why'd you ask?"

"Maybe I'll talk about it some other time… Anyway, I'm glad that I haven't been gone for too long!" Ichirin said before continuing on her way, leaving the mouse demon with question marks.

* * *

Yuugi walked into a large cave that was the entrance to the underground. "Good to be back!" she said to herself. "What an adventure! Never thought I would encounter something ridiculously powerful! I actually enjoyed fighting that dinosaur! Looks like I've got a great story to tell everyone while drinking with them at night!"

"What story do you have to tell?" asked a voice. Yuugi looked up and saw Yamame looking down from a hammock made of spider web.

"It's the wildest adventure I've ever had and probably the wildest you'll ever hear about!" Yuugi told her. "Stop by former hell during dinner if you're curious! I'll be sure to keep everyone entertained with my story! Heheh!"

The oni continued on her way, leaving the ground spider wondering what sort of adventure she had.

* * *

Patchouli and the fairy maid that accompanied her to the book rental store were walking down the path that led back to the Scarlet Devil Mansion. The fairy maid noticed that the magician was looking exhausted, so she told her about it.

"Yeah, I'm feeling exhausted… Will have to take a nice, long rest after we get back home…" Patchouli told her.

"What happened?" the fairy maid asked her.

"Maybe we can save the explanation until we get back home," the magician told her, and the fairy maid nodded while wondering what exactly happened to her.

* * *

Keine watched as Kosuzu wrapped the book that took them to the savage world in a piece of green cloth before placing it into a wooden box. She then tied up to box with strings and also put tapes around it. "So where do you plan to bury it?" Keine asked her.

"Anywhere that won't be found by people so easily," the storeowner replied. "No way am I going to let this horrible book take anyone to that terrible place again!"

"Wouldn't it be better to just burn it?" Keine asked her.

"I plan to do that after throwing it into the hole," Kosuzu told her. Never again shall this book terrorize anyone! Ever!"

"I agree," Keine said with a nod. "This book is indeed dangerous… Even opening it makes me scared… We better get rid of this book as soon as we can… Normally, I would give it to Yukari to let her deal with it by sending it somewhere else, but given her personality, I don't think she can be trusted with this task… You'll never know if she'll decide to have a bit of fun with it, if you know what I mean…"

"You have a point," Kosuzu said. After she was done putting tapes around the box, she stood up with it in her hands. "All right, now to get rid of it!"

**BGM Ends**

* * *

Keine and Kosuzu traveled together to a place quite a bit of a distance from the Human Village, out in the woods. After looking around to see that there was nobody, they used the shovels they brought along to dig a hole. They took several minutes to dig a deep hole, and after seeing that it was deep enough, Keine carried Kosuzu out of it using flight.

Kosuzu threw the box containing the book into the hole, poured lamp oil onto it, and then lighted up a match. She threw the lighted match into the hole, and needless to say, the box was instantly covered in fire. The duo watched from a bit of a distance at the smoke emerging from the hole, and after letting the book burn for several minutes, Keine went over to the hole with a bucket of water to pour into to put out the fire.

When the fire was put out, they looked into the hole to see a nearly unidentifiable black object at the bottom of it. After that, they tossed the dirt they dug up back into the hole until it was filled up completely, and they also made sure that the part of the ground they dug looked as if it had never been touched.

"There! Finished!" Kosuzu said while stepping and rubbing that part of the ground with her feet. "I never want to see this book again! Never again!"

"For someone who was great interest in books, it's weird hearing you say something like that…" Keine said.

"I cannot tolerate books that put people's lives in danger! Books like this are better off non-existent! I'm glad that we got rid of it!" Kosuzu said. "All right; let's leave this place before somebody sees us and becomes suspicious."

Kosuzu then headed in the direction of the Human Village, and Keine gave that spot one last look before following her.

* * *

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**BGM: Mary the Magician ~ Music Box (remix of Mary the Magician, by Moonsoul)**

The Mohrock Tribe was the only tribe in the unnamed land filled with dangerous beasts. Despite the dangers around them, the Mohrock warriors were all strong enough to deal with them, so the tribe managed to prosper for a long time in their homeland.

Chief Hookawan was the latest ruler of the Mohrock Tribe. When his wife fell to a new kind of illness that none of the tribe's doctor could cure, he asked for the help of their finest witch doctor.

The witch doctor had never seen this kind of sickness before as well, but in order to preserve his reputation as being all-powerful and capable of resolving anything, he did his best to whip up a potion that could cure her.

However, even his talents failed to cure her. In fact, his potion ended up putting her in a brain dead state with seemingly no hope of recovering. Chief Hookawan was enraged at the witch doctor, but he showed a bit of mercy, so instead of putting him to death, he banished him from the city of El Tomado and told him to never show his face again. All his properties were taken from him as well. He was sent out into the jungle with none of his belongings.

The witch doctor was enraged at this and felt that this punishment was too cruel for perhaps the only mistake he ever made in his career. Wanting to get back at the chief and the village for banishing him, the witch doctor set to work in a hut he built out in the jungle. He wanted to show them the consequences of enraging him.

Remember a certain recipe in his book, the witch doctor whipped up a poison that he planned to use against the entire city, but when he couldn't find a way to make it spread throughout that place in a short amount of time, he decided to drop this idea first and see if he could think of something else.

That was when he remembered another recipe in the book, the recipe for a superhuman potion. Anyone who drank this potion would be granted superhuman strength, durability, and enhanced abilities. His plan was to inject it into the body of an animal he could get his hands on, preferably a large and ferocious one, and get it to attack the village. He also came up with the idea of injecting the poison into the animal in a way so that it would be able to breathe it and spread it around the place.

The first animal that came to his mind was one of the fiercest and most dangerous animals this world had to offer, the tyrannosaurus. Using a dart containing powerful sedative, he managed to put a tyrannosaurus he came across to sleep. After the dinosaur was put to sleep, the witch doctor injected the superhuman potion into his bloodstream so that its effect would last forever, or at least a very long time. He also modified the poison so that it was safe for consumption the first time, and whoever consumed it would be able to breathe it out. It was sent down the dinosaur's throat while he was sleeping.

Due to having a large amount of the superhuman potion injected into his bloodstream, the tyrannosaurus grew to twice his size, and the tyrannical beast went on rampage when he woke up. The witch doctor followed him at a distance to see what sort of chaos he would bring to the village.

The appearance of the tyrannosaurus shocked the tribe greatly, and many were slaughtered by him as he rampaged through the city. Even their mightiest warriors were no match for it, and for once, they felt fear and powerless fighting an enemy. Defenseless against the dinosaur, the tribe was quickly devastated, and the population of El Tomado dwindled at a great speed.

The witch doctor was pleased with the result, but he quickly realized that doing this wasn't a good idea after all. The tyrannosaurus became the top threat and predator of this world. Everyone who came against it stood no chance. The witch doctor realized that his life was in danger with the tyrannosaurus wandering the place, and with the human population of this place pretty much gone, he saw that he had no future living in a place filled with dangerous beasts. That was when he regretted having let the thought revenge consume his mind and resulting in him committing such a grave mistake.

There was one last thing he could do, and that was to leave behind this world and find a new life somewhere far away, one that had civilization. After gathering some crystals that had magical properties, the witch doctor made his way to the top of the pyramid built by the tribe as a way of testing its men by having them go through trials to get to the top. There was shortcut to the top that required no trials, but it was only reserved for the chief and those who would pass out awards to participants who made it the top. That was the path the witch doctor took.

Once at the top, the witch doctor set up an altar with the crystal on it and then spoke the magic words to make his teleportation spell work. He was successful and found himself warped to present-day Japan, in the outskirts of Tokyo.

There, the witch doctor took his time to get adapted to modern day lifestyle and also learned Japanese. He eventually grew accustomed to living in this new world and blended in with its society. However, he still felt guilt for wiping out his own tribesman, and he also missed his glorious days there. Not wanting the memory of his world to disappear forever, he made a book that talked about the geography, culture, animals, and the plant life of that place. He also thought if he should go back there to see how things were currently, so he used a crystal he brought with him to this world as a way of going back there and stuck it to the cover of the book.

After completing the book, however, he began to have second thoughts about going back there, as he feared running across that tyrannosaurus, so he put the book away and never again thought of going back there.

Time passed, and the witch doctor eventually succumbed to old age, a total of ninety-three years. His properties were soon donated to various places, and some were put on sale. An explorer eventually came across this book when it was donated to a library and was fascinated by the "fictional" setting in it. He told himself that he would really love to see the person who was creative enough to come up with something like this, not to mention visiting a place like this. His second wish came true when, after borrowing the book, he pressed the crystal at the cover and was transported to the witch doctor's homeland with three of his fellow explorers.

At first, it seemed like a wish came true for that explorer, but he quickly realized that this place was far harsher and more dangerous than any of his expeditions in the past. Two of his companions died in this savage place—one to the humanoid lizards who had thermal-based vision and the other one to piranhas when they jumped onto the boat they were using for traveling down the river.

The remaining two explorers arrived at the desolated city of the Mohrock Tribe and settled there for a few days to learn about its history, culture, and language. Believing that their way back to Japan was at the top of the pyramid, they headed over there once they felt they had stayed here long enough. At that time, giant spiders and humanoid lizards had yet to make their home in the pyramid, so they were able to get through it with ease, other than facing the trials.

The final trial, the obstacle course, was a dangerous one, but in the end, they both managed to overcome it and arrive at the top of the pyramid, where they used the crystal created by the witch doctor to transport themselves back to Japan, and they learned that despite having been gone for forty days, they were only gone from their own world for only slightly more than a minute.

Scared by the book, they placed it in a box and then decided to get rid of it by burying it in the woods. They'd rather get fined by the library for "losing" the book than to return it and potentially bringing danger to other people. However, while on their way to the woods, they became involved in a violent car accident when they crashed into a truck that was driving down the wrong lane. They managed to survive, but the box containing the book flew out of the car and fell into a river, where it got washed away.

Over time, the box was found by a man who was collecting old things to sell, and needless to say, he decided to put this book on a sale in a humble stand he set up outside his house. For days, nobody had the interest to buy it. That was until one day, a blond woman dressed in purple appeared, saw the book, and thought it would make an interesting collection for a certain book rental store in a certain isolated place filled with demons and other mythical creatures…

If only she knew the truth behind that book…

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_THE END_

* * *

That's another story finished! Hope you enjoyed everything you've read!

As I wasn't able to explain what the world Reimu and her group went to was about during the actual story, I explained everything here instead. Hope this doesn't equal bad storytelling…

Anyway, anyone who looked at my Twitter should be aware that my next story is a Shizuha-centric story. It probably won't take long for that story to be posted, but I'll still make mention of its plot on Twitter, so please check my Twitter if you're curious!

God bless you all!

**Trivia:  
**1. The Mohrock Tribe is named after the Mohawk Tribe.

2. The shortcut to the top of the pyramid is close to the entrance. A door nearby it leads to a staircase that goes all the way to the top.

3. The witch doctor used a large syringe to inject the superhuman potion into the tyrannosaurus's body. Let's just say that the people there are advanced enough to somehow create syringe not made of plastic or whatever is made to make modern day syringes… Syringes were used as far back as the first century A.D by the Romans, but the Indians were known to be the earliest people to use them.

4. You can say that this chapter's title is named after Touhou 3's daytime ending theme.


End file.
